Sorrow of a Shinigami
by simba-rulz
Summary: Depressed after his father's death, Gohan killed himself with hopes that he'd see his father in the afterlife. After his suicide, Gohan becomes a shinigami, with no memory at all! What will happen when he's sent to kill his own brother? CHAPTER 8 UP!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Well, I haven't written a somewhat angsty fic for a while, so I decided to go ahead and make this. This chapter of the fic takes place a year after Goku's death at the Cell Games. The rest of the fic will take place during the Buu saga, but I don't plan on having Buu appear.

My only warning is that the first chapter has suicide in it. If that doesn't bug you, then go ahead and read it. I want to see how many people know what anime I got the idea for this fanfic from. This fic won't even follow that series at all…I just got the shinigami idea from it. ;;

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragonball Z. Toriyama Akira does. If I owned Dragonball Z, I'd be filthy rich like Toriyama. XD

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Why did this happen?_ Piccolo thought solemnly as he stared at his young friend's grave. "Why didn't I see how upset he was? Why didn't I make him talk about it!"

"Piccolo…Piccolo, this isn't your fault. It was mine." Chichi sighed as she held her umbrella over her head to shelter herself from the rain. "I SAW how depressed he was, but I still pushed him so hard to fit MY expectations. I was the one who pushed him to this!"

"No. It's Son's fault. If only he had returned to life…!" Piccolo scowled. "YOU HEAR THAT, SON! YOU KILLED HIM!"

"I hate it, Piccolo. Fighting, that is. I hate it! It's..." several tears fell from the woman's eyes, "It's taken away nearly everything that's important to me. Will it take Goten away from me, too?"

Piccolo silently stared at the grave marker. Was it fighting that caused this?

_Son Gohan_  
_1995 – 2006_  
_A loving son and friend. Rest in peace._

"No. Fighting's not all to blame. It was me, too." Chichi remembered back to what had started it all.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Gohan! Dinner's ready!" Chichi yelled from the kitchen. She was worried about Gohan. Ever since Goku had died, he had been so silent and barely ate anything. She wanted nothing more than to see her son happy again.

Gohan slowly descended down the stairs, his eyes clouded with sorrow and self hatred, downcast. He had been that way since his father died. He was like a complete robot, only responding with a nod, or, if Chichi was lucky, a few words. Where had her happy little baby gone? It almost seemed as though when Goku had died, he took half of Gohan's very soul with him.

The child sat at the table and slowly glanced at the food on his plate. Rice and taiyaki. Those were his favorite foods. His mother obviously was making an attempt at making him eat.

He pushed the plate away. "I'm not hungry."

"GOHAN! YOU HAVEN'T ATE IN DAYS!" She yelled as she grabbed her son's shoulders. "What's wrong, Gohan-chan? You're worrying me. That's not good for your brother, you know." She said as she patted the bump on her stomach.

Gohan's eyes widened, but remained clouded. "Brother? It's my fault my brother won't have a father. I killed father."

"So that's what this is about! Listen, Goku-sa stayed dead for the planet's sake. You should respect his wishes."

"That's what it's always been about, isn't it? Earth. He could care less about me. Food, fighting, planet. Those are his concerns. His only concerns."

Chichi glared at him with anger. "GOHAN-CHAN! Don't talk about your father like that! Go to your room! You better be studyin' when I come in there, too!"

Gohan just stared before slowly going up to his room. She could never understand him, could she? No. No one could. He was alone.

"Goku-sa… Can't you see how much this hurts Gohan-chan and me? I miss you so much. I don't know how much longer I can stand this, Goku-sa…"

Gohan sighed in his room. Oh, he could hear her, alright. He had been the one who hurt her. He killed his father, therefore robbing his brother of a father, and brought sadness upon his mother. Was there anything he could do right?

"I can't live anymore!" He cried. "I can't take this! No on would care if I died, anyway. I'm just a pain to everyone. They'd be happy if I was gone!"

He grabbed a knife from his drawer. It was actually a steak knife, but it was better than nothing. He had bought it secretly when his mother sent him out to buy groceries at the store a few weeks after his father died. He cut himself every now and then, but never thought that it healed his pain. He wouldn't be free until he died.

"Otousan…I'm coming. I'll see you again soon." He whispered as he escaped out of his window.

The child flew over the forest until he found a suitable place where he didn't think anyone would find him. It was a rather secluded spot, covered with trees, therefore making him less visible to someone flying over.

He drew the knife from his knapsack. "I'm ready for this. I need this. I need to be freed from this pain."

Just as he was about to bring the knife down to his wrist, a stick cracked behind him. He quickly put the knife in his bag, hoping that whatever was being him didn't see it.

He looked up to see Piccolo. "Konbanwa, Piccolo-san. I came out to look at the stars." He put on a fake smile, trying to fool Piccolo.

"Are you okay, kid? You look pale." The Namekujin was far from fooled. He and Gohan had a unique bond. He could feel Gohan's emotions just as well as Gohan could feel his. Their bond had been created after years of friendship.

"I'm okay. I just came out here to look at the stars, you know." He lied. He hated lying to Piccolo. Piccolo was his friend, but Piccolo could never understand or accept what he was about to do. Piccolo would try to stop him, no matter what. Guilt. That's what he felt. The guilt from lying to Piccolo just piled up on the rest of the guilt he felt.

"Do you want to spar, kid?" Piccolo suggested. He could tell Gohan was lying, but he could also tell that Gohan was sad somehow. As much as he wanted to help Gohan, he knew that prying would just make the situation worse. Gohan would eventually tell him what was wrong anyway. He always did. He's probably come running to him tomorrow about it. That's what Piccolo tried to tell himself, anyway. Little did he know, he'd greatly regret the decision not to pry in the near future.

"No thanks. I'm too tired. I'm going to be going back to the house now, Piccolo-san. Sayonara!" He called as he ran off.

Piccolo thought that the "sayonara" was strange. Gohan always said, "ja," the more casual version of goodbye that mean that he'd see him soon. Why "sayonara," all of a sudden? It was as if he'd never see him again!

About fifteen minutes later, Piccolo felt Gohan's ki fall to dangerous levels. He paled as goose bumps formed on his green skin. He feared to know what happened, but quickly composed himself and flew in the direction that he felt Gohan's ki last.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gohan sadly smiled as he found another secluded spot to complete his suicide at. He felt really bad for lying to Piccolo. That would be the last time he'd see Piccolo until Piccolo died, after all. With life spans like Namekujins have, he had no idea how long that would be. Not to say that he wanted Piccolo to join him in death soon, because he didn't. He wanted Piccolo to live his life to the fullest.

He examined the knife and then his wrist. He was thankful that he had read so much about the human anatomy (which, he knew to be close to saiyajin anatomy). He knew exactly where to cut to hit a major vein, which would kill him without a doubt. He wanted to be sure he would die.

The child reviewed over his life. Yes, he wanted to leave this place. He wanted to be in a warmer place. A warmer place with his father.

Gohan brought the knife down to his wrist and, flinched for a moment, then brought it down into his wrist. He whimpered in pain. It hurt so much. He reminded himself it would only hurt for a while, then he'd be with his father again. This would have a good outcome.

The blood seeped from his wound, dripping off of his arm, some landing on the ground, and some on his clothes. He fell to the ground as more and more of the blood left his body. His vision began to double and gray, as he also felt his hearing, and taste leave him, too. Then there was the numbing feeling. He didn't feel pain anymore. Just numbness.

"GOHAN!" He opened his eyes to see Piccolo standing before him. No. It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. Now he'd have even more guilt on his shoulders for all of eternity. Making Piccolo witness this…

Piccolo ran up, grabbed the child, and cradled the child in his arms. "Gohan, what did you do to yourself? Why? Why did you do this?"

"Lemme die…" He whimpered as the last of his life left him. He fell limp into Piccolo's arms, his breathing ceased. His heart gave one last pump before giving out, too. Son Gohan was dead.

"No! This…. Gohan! WHY?" Piccolo yelled. Then the Namekujin did something that he'd never expect he'd ever do. He cried. The Namekujin cradled his dead student's body in his arms and cried, a few tears falling on to Gohan's cold face.

"I…I…need to take him to his mother. She has to know."

The Namekujin silently flew to Chichi's house, looking down at Gohan every now and then, hoping that by some miracle, the child would wake up and laugh at him for believing he was dead. It never happened. Gohan was still cold, still limp, and was still dead. The part that made Piccolo even sadder was that the child couldn't be revived. Shenron wouldn't revive those who had killed themselves, as the person most likely didn't want to come back, and Shenron didn't see it fit to bring back a person who decided their own fate like that.

Chichi ran out of the house the instant she saw Piccolo. Gohan had been missing for awhile. She was worried sick over him.

"Piccolo! Don't tell me you sparred with him! He's out cold!" Then she noticed the blood. So much blood. Too much for just a spar.

"Chichi…he's….he…he killed himself. He cut his wrist. He's dead, Chichi." Piccolo said solemnly.

"D…e….a…d…?" The woman fainted dead away. This was too much for her.

Piccolo picked her up in his other arm as he shifted Gohan's body to his left arm. He placed Chichi on the sofa in the cozy house, and put Gohan on the floor, making sure to zap new clothing on the body. Chichi wouldn't want to see all that blood. He didn't either. It was a reminder.

Piccolo sighed. This was the beginning of a life without Gohan. Piccolo didn't know if he could live a life like that.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Where am I?_

Gohan opened his eyes to find himself in a gray void. He couldn't see anything but gray. It reminded him of the Room of Spirit and Time, except it was gray instead of white.

"How did I get here?" He asked himself aloud. The last thing he remembered he had…he had…killed himself. Was this heaven? Wasn't Emna supposed to be there to tell him he could be with his father?

"Emna's not here. You don't deserve that." A masculine voice called from behind him. Gohan quickly turned and gasped. The man was tall, and was wearing a black garb, along with a black hood that shrouded his face from view. All Gohan could see was that he had long blond hair, from the stray pieces of hair that poked out from the hood.

"Who are you?" Gohan yelled as he got in a stance, ready to fight off the man if he needed to.

"You, who disrespect life, want so see Emna? You expected to see the dead family members and friends of yours, don't you?" The man's voice was completely emotionless. "You won't find them where you're going."

"Eh…? Am I…going to…hell?" Gohan shuddered. What did he do wrong? He just saved his family and friends the trouble of having him around.

"No. You're going to something much worse." The man grabbed Gohan and pulled him close to him.

"HEY! Let me go! Let me…" Gohan relaxed into the man's arms, as if in a trance.

"I shall banish past memories from you're mind." He said, as he let Gohan go, and Gohan took a step back, still in the trance that he was in before. "Come, Shinigami Yuurei. Come to your never ending punishment."

In a flap of the man's cape, Son Gohan and the man vanished as they went to the Spirit Dimension, a dimension where only Shinigami could go. Those who lived up to their life's expectations went on to heaven, but not Shinigami. People who dared to take their own life weren't so lucky.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"GOKU!" Kaiosama yelled. "GOKU, THIS IS IMPORTANT!"

"Eh?" Goku stuffed another piece of bread in his mouth. "What could be so important that I have to stop eating?"

"Goku…Gohan commit suicide."

"Suicide? What's that? Is that a kind of food?" Goku asked as he cocked his head. "Wait! I think I heard someone say that if you mix a bunch of drinks together, you get something called suicide..."

"It's NOT A DRINK, you IDIOT! Why do I even put up with you? Sheesh." Kaiosama rolled his eyes. "It means that he killed himself."

"He did WHAT?" Goku gaped. Why would Gohan do something like that?

Kaiosama sighed. He decided against telling Goku what Gohan's ultimate fate from his death for the rest of eternity was. Goku would be more saddened by that. Being a Shinigami wasn't exactly something to be proud of.

Shinigami. Kaiosama remembered the conflict over life and death back when the universe was first created. The kai-tachi all argued over what should become of mortals. Some said that they should have eternal life, but other argued that people had to die, because it was a part of their existence. Eventually, the argument of death won over immortality, but then there was a problem. How would souls get to heaven? Some kind of spirit would have to come down, take their soul, and carry it to heaven. These spirits were then named Shinigami. Because being a Shinigami was a horrible experience, it was decided that those who foolishly throw their lives away by suicide would become Shinigami and remain Shinigami for all of eternity.

All Shinigami were once alive, but they don't have any memories from their lives. They can't be connected to the mortal world or else they wouldn't be able to complete their jobs. Ifa Shinigami were to remember his or her life, he or she would become a ghost. Ghosts were poor spirits that roamed aimlessly around the universe with no one to talk to, and no one who could see them.

Kaiosama knew that there was nothing he or anybody could do to save Gohan from the fate that had befouled him. By new, Gohan probably had no recollection of ever being called Gohan. He had probably became a completely different person by now.

"Kaiosama?" Goku asked. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I was just thinking. Nothing to worry about, Goku." The kaio adjusted his glasses. "It's you I'm worried about. You're son just died! You must feel terrible…!"

"We can always bring him back with the Dragonballs, so it's no problem." Goku smiled.

"No...you can't'."

"What?" Goku said with wide eyes.

"You can't bring back a person who killed themselves, Goku. I'm sorry. Shenron wouldn't allow someone who did that to return."

"No…no…way…" Goku visibly saddened. "Then, I'll see him here, right? He should be at the check-in station any moment now."

"No. People who kill themselves have a completely different dimension for themselves. I'm sorry, Goku. You'll never see Gohan again. Ever."

Goku's eyes looked glossy as he fell to his knees. It wasn't right. Gohan was so young. He had so much to live for. Gohan should have been able to get married, and bless Goku with grandchildren. Gohan was supposed to grow old, and watch his own children and grandchildren. He wasn't supposed to die! Goku couldn't take it. He broke down and cried.

Kaiosama looked down at Goku's. He had never seen Goku cry. Goku was the kind of guy who didn't let anything get him down. This though…this was his son that died. Kaiosama didn't even want to imagine how much that hurt.

"Kaiosama…is he…in pain? Are they torturing him in this other dimension?" Goku whipped away a few tears.

Kaiosama wasn't going to tell Goku that Gohan was now fated to be a Shinigami, but he couldn't lie about the whole story.

"No. He's not in pain." Kaiosama took in a breath. "He doesn't even remember anything that happened in his life, Goku. He's a clean slate. Other than that, I don't know what's going on with him. I'm not allowed into the Spirit World, and neither are you.

Goku looked down. So Gohan didn't even remember him, huh? It was probably for the best. Gohan had always worried about him so much. He took after his mother.

"CHICHI! Oh gosh! I have to be there for her, Kaiosama! She's alone! She needs me! Please, let me be wished back to life!"

Kaiosama almost wanted to yell at Goku. If Goku would have came back before now, Gohan might now be dead. No use worrying about the past though.

I'll inform Dende and the Namekujins. The Earth dragonballs aren't recharged yet, so the Namekujins will have to wish you back.

"Okay." Goku sighed, thinking about his son. What had led to this…?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** There's the first chapter. Another clue as to what anime I got the idea from is this:

The manga was just licensed in the United States a few months ago and there are several volumes out. The anime has yet to be licensed and dubbed (which, might I add, I'm dreading when it's dubbed. Mostly because I don't know how their going to deal with the music in the series. I would die if they had someone like Hillary Duff sing the songs. pukes

V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Press review!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** You all are really mean, you know that! So many hits, but only three reviews! glares Review, I say! Heh. I'm just joking. You don't have to review if you don't want to, but it would be really nice. Reviews ensure to me that there are people out there who like this story. Reviews really do encourage me to keep on writing.

DBZ Chick1 asked if Gohan would get his memories back. That's for you guys to read and find out!

sweat drops Amazingly enough, I have this story completely planned up. I generally just start on something, then I don't know where to go from there. Right now I've got a rough sketch of what I want from this fic in my head. I really hope that this one will become one of my more recognized fanfics. I'm always a bit annoyed at how Matchmakers, my first fanfic (that I made when I was eleven years old and in the sixth grade ¬¬), has the most reviews and hits out of all my fanfics. By my opinion, that fanfic was the worst piece of crap I could have ever made. It's too fluffy. shudders Fluff isn't my thing anymore. is now an angst fanatic

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything except for my own original characters who will pop up every now and then. Yuurei is technically Gohan, so I don't own him either. Toriyama-san owns Dragonball. He's like…God…

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuurei, a shinigami who was once called Son Gohan, yawned as he sat upon a mountain in the dimension of the shinigami. Life…err…death was incredibly boring unless he was sent on a mission. Of course, the mission's weren't enjoyable either, since his whole purpose was basically to kill a person. Shinigami didn't kill people out of cruelty though. They killed because fate had chosen that it was a person's time to die. The person dieing never saw the shinigami, since shinigami were invisible to the living. Even with the victim not knowing that he was there, aiming to take their soul, it made Yuurei feel extremely guilty.

Yuurei smoothed out a few of the feathers of his wings. Yuurei was a dog shinigami. He had two black dog ears on top of his head (A/N: Think of a black version of Inuyasha's ears XD), and a long, bushy black tail. Two rather small wings poked out of his back. The shinigami's outfit consisted of a navy-colored sleeveless t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. Somehow, the males' outfits were less showy as the females' outfits.

He sighed. There had been one thing that had bugged him since he found himself in the shinigami's dimension. How had he got there? He had been told that shinigami were once living people, but became shinigami as punishment for committing suicide. He desperately wanted to remember who he was when he was alive, and why he would give up something as precious as life.

"OI! YUUREI-CHAAAAN!" Yuurei shuddered. Here she came. She was Yuurei's partner shinigami. Her name was Aiko, and she seemed to be obsessive over him.

Aiko glared. "Yuurei-chan! We need to get working on our latest mission, you know! It's best to learn about the person we're taking the soul from before the day of the person's death occurs, you know! It helps in the end!"

Aiko was a cat shinigami. She had long blond hair that went all the way down to her knees, a cat tail, and cat ears on her head. She was wearing a somewhat decorative yet comfortable red dress that went down to about her knees. On her hands, she had two black cloves, with frilly white cufflinks around her wrists. She also had thigh high red boots, which matched her dress.

"Mission…?" Yuurei blinked. What mission?

"Geeze! You're so forgetful! Let me go over this again!" She glared before magically making the shinigami handbook appear in her hands. She held it up so Yuurei could see it. "See? Here's the kid's information! Son Goten, age seven. He's to die next year from a cancer in his throat."

Yuurei thought he had heard that surname of "Son," before, but ignored the feeling. "Poor kid. He's so young."

"YUUREI! We can't worry about how tragic it is! We just need to retrieve his soul! He's set to die on this day next year." Aiko concluded as she made the shnigami handbook disappear.

"Hmph. I hate being on the list of shinigami to do kids." Yuurei snorted. This wouldn't be much fun at all. Then again, it never was supposed to be.

Aiko looked him in the eyes. "This is punishment, Yuurei. It's meant to not make you feel nice inside." She sighed. "Anyway, you need to be careful. Remember, it's only been seven years since your death. People who may have known you back when you were living may still be around, you know!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. If a shinigami remembers his or her life, he or she becomes a ghost, right?"

"Yes. Yuurei, I'd be crushed if you became a ghost." She hugged him and smiled. She loved him so much, but she knew it was a one-sided love. Yuurei wasn't interested in her. How long had it been since she first met him, anyway? She had remembered she had been angry back then… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Flashback_

"AIKO!" The master of the shinigami's yelled, his dark cloak covering his face. He was the guy who had taken Gohan. "Come here! This is your new partner! He's a new comer, so be easy on him!"

Aiko looked at the child that the master had next to him. The child hadn't came out of the trance that the master had put him in yet, as he still needed to be cleansed of his memories as well as turned into a shinigami.

Aiko didn't like this. She had been paired up with another shinigami named Reizo before. The two of them got along well. For her to be paired up with someone else…why…?

"MASTER! Why are you pairing me up with him! I'm already paired with Reizo! I like being with Reizo!" She yelled.

"Reizo requested to be separated from you." Her eyes widened. "You will accept your new partner. His name is Yuurei."

"Reizo… Why would Reizo want to be separated from me!" She cried. At one time, she even thought she was in love with Reizo. "WHY?"

"That's for you to ask. Your new partner will be ready in a few hours. First, he must be transformed into a shinigami."

_End flashback_

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aiko laughed. Back then, she thought being with Yuurei would be hell. She was completely wrong. She worked better with Yuurei than she ever did with Reizo. Reizo was hot headed and arrogant, while Yuurei was kind, caring, and everything Reizo wasn't. She didn't miss Reizo at all anymore.

The first time she had talked to Yuurei, she knew she was going to have a tough time getting him to fit into being a shinigami. He was too inquisitive. He wanted to know what happened in his life. That was forbidden. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Flashback_

Aiko looked down at her new partner with a scowl. He had been transformed into a shinigami, therefore making his body appear as though he was about sixteen years old. He began to stir on the ground.

"Ugh… What hit me…?" He said. Aiko had to admit, he did have a handsome voice.

"You died. You're a shinigami now. Get used to it!" She yelled. "You're MY partner from now on!"

"Shi…ni...ga…mi? Doesn't that mean god of death?" He shivered.

"Yes. Shinigami collect the souls of the living, and bring them to heaven. You're a shinigami because you commit suicide." She growled. She hated explaining all this.

"Suicide..?" He tried to remember his suicide. Nothing. He quickly realized that he couldn't remember anything. He couldn't even remember his name! "I…wait…who... Who am I?"

"Your name is Yuurei. You don't have any memory of anything because shinigami can't be connected to the living world. We shinigami have our memories erased the instant we get here."

"Why would I have killed myself? What was I so upset about?" He clenched his fists in frustration. "I want to remember!"

"NO! You can't do that! If you were to remember your life, you would become a ghost! A ghost…a ghost is a poor soul who's left to wander the universe all alone. Not even shinigami can see ghosts. I won't let that happen to you."

"So…explain more of this shinigami thing to me."

Aiko sighed. This would be a long day.

_End flashback_

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We should go collect information on this kid now, Aiko. Go see what he's like and all." Yuurei suggested.

"Yeah." The two flew over to a pond that was nearby. As soon as they landed, Aiko made a vile of liquid appear and she dumped it into the pond. The pond instantly turned a pink-ish color.

"There it is. Our pathway to Earth." She smiled. It had been a while since she'd been there. Even if no one could see her, she still had a lot of fun. "Let's go, Yuurei-chan!"

The two jumped into the pond and instantly reappeared in a forest not far from the Son house. Yuurei immediately looked around the forest, thinking it looked familiar, but, like earlier, shrugged off the feeling.

Aiko made the shinigami handbook appear and turned to the page with Goten's information in it. "Let's see…according to the book, he should live over in that direction!" She pointed to the east. "Time to go see what this kid's up to."

"Yeah." The two flew to the east until they saw a small capsule house. They immediately flew straight through the ceiling. Since they were shinigami, they could go through anything in the living world.

The two appeared in a child's room, and saw the kid huddled in a corner, playing with a few of his toys. Goten turned around to grab another one of his action figures, but stopped and stared at the spot where Yuurei and Aiko were standing.

Yuurei and Aiko looked behind them to see what Goten was looking at. Seeing nothing, Yuurei said, "I wonder what that kid's looking at."

Goten blinked. "I'm looking at you guys, of course. What are you doing in my room? Who are you?"

Yuurei and Aiko both went wide eyed. How could the child see them? That was…impossible! Shinigami were invisible to a living person's eyes!

Breaking out of their stupor, they started to panic. This wasn't something that was supposed to happen! He shouldn't be able to see or hear them!

"YUUREI! WHAT DO WE DO, WHAT DO WE DO, WHAT DO WE DO?"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW! YOU'VE BEEN A SHINIGAMI LONGER THAN I HAVE!"

"The handbook has to have something on this!" Aiko made the shinigami handbook appear and furiously looked through it. "There's not an answer!"

"Um… Again, who are you guys and what are you doing in my room?" Goten asked.

Yuurei and Aiko exchanged glances before Yuurei jumped into the air and exclaimed, "I AM THE SHNIGAMI YUUREI!" He gave a piece sign.

"I AM THE SHINIGAMI AIKO!" Aiko yelled as she jumped into Yuurei's arms and they posed.

"TOGETHER WE ARE….KARAAGE TAMANEGI!"

Goten immediately rolled around on the floor laughing. "Karaage Tamanegi? You're called FRIED ONIONS!" He continued laughing.

Aiko sweat dropped. "Yuurei, I hate our team name."

"I do, too, but it's what the master named us." He sighed. "We can't complain."

Goten composed himself after laughing so much. "So, what are you doing here? How did you come through the roof?"

"We're here because you're going to die in a year from that tumor in your throat. We're shinigami. That's why we can fly through stuff. No one is supposed to be able to see us." Yuurei said casually.

"YUUREI! He isn't supposed to know that!"

"I'm…going…to die…?" Goten looked fearful. "I…but…I wanted to become a fighter, like my daddy! If I only have a year, I want to get as strong as possible, so I can make him and mommy proud!" The child ran out to his backyard. His parents weren't home currently since they went off to the store.

"WAIT UP, KID!" Yuurei yelled. Aiko was too busy reading through the shinigami handbook, hoping to find a way to fix this disaster that Yuurei started.

"What? If I only have a year left, I better hurry!" Goten yelled.

"You'll bring death upon earlier if you fight with that tumor!" Yuurei yelled just as Goten fell and began to cough.

"Th...then how am I going to make daddy proud?" Goten asked while gasping. He had been diagnosed with having cancer in his throat only a year ago. He didn't want surgery, since he'd lose his voice, and he didn't want that. He only took medication to treat it.

"It sure won't be by bringing your death sooner!" Yuurei yelled as he helped the boy up.

Goten began to cry. "Why can't I be healthy? It's not fair! Trunks is, and he gets to train as much as he wants!"

Yuurei looked at the child with pity. He felt a compelling urge to make the child happy. The kid only had a year left, after all. "I'll make it so you can temporarily be healthy. Your body will be sixteen years old when you're healthy though, you understand?"

"YUUREI! YOU MUST BE KIDDING?" Aiko yelled with anger. "YOU'LL BE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE WITH THE MASTER!"

"Let the kid have his wish, Aiko. He only has a year left, after all." Yuurei reasoned.

"Hmph."

Goten looked up at Yuurei. He looked a lot like his father. He almost felt like he'd met the guy somewhere before.

"Um…Yuurei-san?"

"Just call me Yuurei. Don't be so formal."

"Okay, Yuurei, how are you going to make me healthy."

Yuurei smirked. He enjoyed using his powers. Aiko never let him use his often though, since she was so proud of her own. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

Goten and Aiko gasped as Yuurei took out a small knife and made a tiny cut on his finger. The small droplet of blood that fell from it quickly turned into what looked like a piece of candy. Yuurei grabbed the candy-like object and held it out to Goten.

"Eat this. It's mandatory to the transformation."

"Okay!" Goten grabbed it, stuffed it in his mouth and swallowed. "Now what?"

Yuurei smirked. "Now I show off MY powers." He glared at Aiko. "This will feel weird for a moment. Just a warning."

Yuurei snapped and Goten's transformation immediately ensued. The child's body glowed as he grew to be a sixteen year old. As soon as the light died down, Yuurei smirked at his accomplishment.

Goten looked over his now sixteen year old body. He was almost as tall as his father! His hair had grown down to be about shoulder length, and he found himself wearing a gi similar to his father's. The best part was that Goten felt healthy. He didn't feel like he had a tumor at all!

"Wow, Yuurei! Thanks so much! I feel healthy when I'm like this!" Goten exclaimed.

"That's because you are. When you're like this, you're cancer doesn't exist. You can push yourself harder than you could before." He smiled.

Suddenly the three heard a noise. "Goten-chan, we're home!" Chichi yelled from the kitchen.

"How do I change back?" Goten asked worriedly.

Yuurei snapped and suddenly Goten found himself seven years old again, with the tumor back.

"Don't worry about them seeing us. We're invisible to them." Yuurei explained.

"Yuurei…I can't believe you're doing this." Aiko complained. "Anyway, it might be better if we transformed into our other form so that Goten won't look crazy, talking to air and everything."

"Yeah, that's a good idea."

Goten was going to ask what they meant, but suddenly the two transformed into little plushies! Aiko was a cat plushie, and Yuurei was a dog plushie.

"People can see us like this. Just pretend we're normal stuffed animals." Yuurei explained.

Goten was wide eyed. So many weird things had happened today.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's chapter two. Please review, guys! I'm looking forward to hearing form everyone! I hope it isn't too bad. ;;

DBZAngelX guessed the anime. pokes her That's only 'cause you know me too well, Angel-chan! cough Anyway, the animanga that I got the idea from is Full Moon wo Sagashite. It's shoujo, but I really suggest it to anyone who hasn't read it yet. It's so addictive. I finished the whole anime (all fifty episodes XD) in three days. Of course, the anime isn't licensed in the United States yet, so you'd have to get it off of Bittorent and delete the files after 48 hours, or buy it from CD Japan or someplace. The first four volumes of the manga are available in the U.S. though! V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Here's chapter three. I'm amazed that I'm getting chapters out this fast. I guess I'm just really inspired for this fic. XD It's one of those fics that's probably going to turn out to be one of my favorites of the one's I've written (I also love my other baby of the moment, Dangerous Thoughts, which, if you like yaoi, I would have to beg for you to read ).

An anonymous reviewer asked why they don't just wish away the cancer in Goten's throat. Well…if they did…the story wouldn't be as interesting, for one. XD Also, lets just say that Shenron can't remove it because it's a part of nature and fate. After all, he can't bring back people who have died from natural causes. Just think of it being connected to that.

I'm really pleased with the statistics for this fanfic. Although there aren't that many reviews (though the reviews that I have gotten have been absolutely awesome, so hats off to **The Almighty Ruler**, **DBZAngelX**, **DBZ Chick1**, **The General of Darkness**, and the anonymous reviewer that went by . I love you guys!), I've got the hits for the story show me that it's being read. It's on a couple of people's favorites list and one person's story alert list, too! I'm thrilled! Truthfully!

I'm really happy that I haven't been completely forgotten after leaving the fanfiction world for so long. I haven't had a seriously PRODUCTIVE fic since Matchmakers, and I made that in 2004. I don't know if any of my fics will be as productive as Matchmakers (it has sixty reviews, 1,146 hits (and that's only since the hit counters started), nine favorites lists, and two story alerts, plus a lot of people who added me as an author alert (back when story alerts didn't exist), which would be thirteen people). I really hope that this fic, or Dangerous Thoughts, can receive that much of a response.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own DBZ, but I do own Aiko. Yuurei is Son Gohan, so I only own the name. Toriyama Akira owns DBZ. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yuurei, you're such an idiot." Aiko and Yuurei were sitting on the roof of the Son house as the family of three slept. "Using your powers to help the one we're supposed to KILL! You've GOT to be joking!"

"Aiko, stop worrying so much." Yuurei smiled. "I bet he'll find out he doesn't like fighting, anyway. We have to make sure he doesn't have any regrets when he dies, because if he does, we may have trouble getting his soul to stay with us."

Aiko sighed. Why did Yuurei have to be so stubborn? They would surely get punished for this. After all, a shinigami wasn't even supposed to interact with the living. That was a part of the whole punishment of being a shinigami.

"So…what do you want to do for the next eight to ten hours? Just sitting on the roof is boring." Yuurei asked. They _could_ sleep in their plushie forms, but what was the point of it anyway? It's not like they needed to sleep.

"Let's just go to sleep. I'm too tired anyway." Aiko was about to go into the house when suddenly she heard a beeping noise. "Ugh. What's the problem this time?"

Aiko made the shinigami handbook appear and opened Goten's page. Her eyes widened. In the book, the words, ".proC eluspaC" were written.

"Hm… The words, "Capsule Corp." are written backwards. That must mean that something that has to do with this "Capsule Corp." will bring Goten's death sooner." Yuurei rubbed his chin. "We'd better make sure he doesn't go there tomorrow. I'm not sure what would shorten his life there, but I don't think I want to know."

Aiko glared at the book. Right when she got a chance to snuggle up to Yuurei, THAT thing had to appear! It was JUST her luck!

"Yuuuuuuuurei-chaaaaaaan!" She pouted. "Lets go to beeeeed! I want to sleep with you!"

Yuurei shuddered. Aiko had gone into her super-freaky-obsessive mode. Didn't she understand that he wasn't interested?

"I'm going to bed, but I'm not sleeping WITH you!"

"Yuuuuuuuurei-chaaaaaaaaaaan!" She whined.

Yuurei turned into his dog plushie form. "No. N-O. I sure hope you know what that means."

"Pleeeeeeeease?" Aiko then turned into her cat plushie form.

"Keh. Fine." Yuurei rolled his eyes. "Just don't snore!"

"Yaaaaaay!" She hugged him (more like "glomped" him). "I won't!"

Several hours later, Goten and Yuurei stared at Aiko. She was snoring away.

"She could wake up mommy and daddy if she stays that loud!" Goten shuddered. She snored louder than even his daddy did!

Yuurei turned to look at Goten with tired eyes. "Now you know what I put up with every day."

Goten yawned. "I'm so tired, but I can't get back to sleep."

"I don't know WHO can sleep through such a monstrosity as Aiko's snoring." Yuurei winced.

"Well…I guess we could talk." Goten looked at Yuurei. "So, how long have you been a shinigami?"

Yuurei shrugged. "Seven years. I became a shinigami after I died."

"Seven years…huh? What were you like when you were alive then?"

"I don't remember. We shinigami have our memories erased when we become shinigami."

Goten's eyes widened. "You don't remember your friends or family then?"

"No. Aiko's the only friend I ever remember having." He looked over at her. "I'm really thankful for her. Even if she's a real pain, she's still the only friend I have."

"That must be really annoying…not remembering anything, I mean." Goten looked up at Yuurei and smiled. "Hey! I can be your second friend! Wait…I know! You can be my big brother!"

Yuurei smiled. Goten was so innocent. "I'm not even related to you, kid."

"I don't care! You've only been here for a day, but I feel like I've known you my whole life." The child smiled. "You've already done a lot for me! I'd be really upset if I didn't get the chance to at least try to be strong like daddy! I was really hoping I could enter this year's tournament this year, you know! Now I can!"

Yuurei just snorted. "All I did was a simple transformation of your body. It's not that hard or impressive."

Goten's eyes widened in amazement. "You can do more? I wanna see what all you can do!" The child giggled. "You're like a magician!"

"Magician? You've gotta be kidding!" Yuurei crossed his arms over his chest. "I can do SO much more than a magician can!"

"Like what?" Goten smirked.

"Hm… Let's see… What can I do to prove myself to you…?" Yuurei joked. "Ah! I see! I can make that dead tree have flowers bloom!" Yuurei pointed over to a tree outside of Goten's window.

"Really?"

"Of course!" Yuurei snapped his fingers. Goten watched in amazement as suddenly green leaves grew on the tree that had been dead for a few years. Life was completely restored to it.

"WOW…!"

A smirk found it's way onto Yuurei's small dog plushie face. It was so simple to impress that kid. He wished he had a little brother like Goten.

"So, Goten." Goten broke out of his stupor of amazement and looked up down at Yuurei. "Are you an only child, or what?"

Goten looked down with sadness. "Sort of."

"What do you mean by that?"

Goten's eyes began to water. "I had an older brother, but he died before I was born."

Yuurei's eyes widened. How terrible!

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but…how'd your brother die?" Yuurei winced as Goten began to cry more.

"He killed himself. Mommy said he was really sad because my daddy died."

Goten looked so sad. It made Yuurei upset to see the child so upset. He didn't know why he felt so compelled to make the child happy and protect him. If Yuurei were to ever see Goten's brother, he would yell at him for being such an idiot. This brother of Goten's left Goten to suffer.

"Wait…you're father is dead?" Yuurei asked.

Goten cocked his head. "No…"

"You just said that your brother killed himself because he was sad about your dad dieing!"

"Yes! My brother was sad because my dad WAS dead! He's alive now!"

Yuurei's eyes widened. What was this kid talking about? Brining people back from the dead was impossible. "If he was dead then, how is he alive now? That makes no sense."

Goten smiled. "We wished him back with the dragonballs, of course!"

Yuurei suddenly winced as a pain came in his head. He fell to the ground clutching his head as he suddenly saw a flash of a young child with a mop top, dressed in a strange kind of armor, a green child and a bald midget who was wearing similar armor to the child's standing on a planet with blue grass, green water and a black sky. The green child seemed to be speaking something in a language that Yuurei had never heard before to a large dragon in the sky. He then saw a flash of a white and purple lizard-looking monster fighting a golden haired man.

"YUUREI-SAN! YUUREI-SAN!" Goten yelled, waking Aiko.

"Huh…..? What about my Yuu-chan…?" Aiko said half asleep.

"Yuurei! What's wrong, Yuurei! Do you have a headache?" Goten asked in distress.

"Eh?" Aiko woke up and saw Yuurei clutching his head. "YUUREI-CHAN!"

As soon as she reached Yuurei, the plushie shinigami stopped clutching his head. Whatever had came had obviously passed.

_What was that?_ Yuurei thought.

"What's wrong, Yuurei-chan?" Aiko asked.

Yuurei composed himself. "It was nothing, Aiko. Go back to sleep."

Aiko looked at him with worry evident in her eyes, but decided against bothering him about it. If Yuurei wanted to tell her what happened, he'd tell her.

"Whatever. I'm going back to sleep. Come on, Yuu-chan!" Aiko grabbed one of Yuurei's paws with her paw and drug him over to her.

"Goodnight, Goten!"

"Night, Yuurei! You, too, Aiko!"

In only a few minutes, both Yuurei and Aiko were asleep under a towel that they were using as a blanket.

"Goten?" Goten looked up from his bed to see his father walk in. "I heard you yelling. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, otousan!" Goten explained. "I was just…um…I had a dream! Yeah!"

Goku just looked at his son strangely. "Whatever you say. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Goodnight, Goten!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Be careful, Goten-chan! If you feel too tired, sit down and rest, okay? Promise me!" Yuurei heard a woman say. Yuurei yawned. He was so tired.

"I will, okaasan! Bye!" Goten yelled as he flew out the door.

Yuurei panicked. Goten must have been going to this "Capsule Corp." place. He had to stop him!

"Aiko! Aiko!" Yuurei shook her. "Wake up!"

The cat-plushie shinigami opened her eyes. "What's wrong, Yuurei? It's so early. Lemme go back to sleep!"

"AIKO! Goten left to go to that Capsule Corp. place!"

Aiko shot straight up, knocking Yuurei to the side.

"HE DID **WHAT**?" She then glared at Yuurei. "WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM?"

"I was half asleep!"

Aiko rolled her eyes. "Excuses, excuses! Let's see…where is this place anyway…" She made the shinigami handbook appear and looked through it. "It should be at least…." Her eyes widened, "FIVE HUNDRED MILES FROM HERE?"

Yuurei winced. "Who cares? Lets just go!"

The two turned into their shinigami forms and flew through the window. They kept flying until they saw a place labeled "Capsule Corp.," where they flew to the ground and turned back into their plushie forms.

"Whew! It looks like he's not here yet!" Aiko sighed.

"Yeah. Thank goodness."

The two suddenly heard a growl and looked in the direction where it came from. There stood a large Rottweiler, growling at them with anger.

Aiko gulped. "Yuurei…what should we do…?"

"How am I supposed to know!"

"Well…you ARE a dog shinigami!"

The dog took a step towards them and they took a step back. The dog continued growling, looking ready to pounce at any moment.

"I've got an idea!" Aiko whispered to Yuurei. "Just let me take care of everything."

Yuurei watched as Aiko bravely walked up to the dog and proceeded to…bark….which was incredibly scary, when you consider the fact that she's a cat shinigami. Yuurei gasped when the dog suddenly seemed to smiled, as if acknowledging that they were friends.

"You speak dog…?" Yuurei asked.

Aiko laughed. "Of course not! I just repeated what he said! I just said it with feeling, so I guess he understood what I meant to get across."

Yuurei sighed with relief. "That's good."

Aiko smiled and barked something again, but then the dog suddenly went vicious again. Aiko shuddered. Looks like she didn't say what she meant to say.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Aiko and Yuurei both screamed as they ran in their plushie forms to get away from the dog.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU TELL IT, AIKO?" Yuurei yelled.

Aiko sweat dropped. "I meant to say thank you, but I guess it didn't come out that way!"

The two ran, and ran, and ran until they saw a polluted stream in the middle of the city.

"We have to jump into it! The dog can't follow us there!" Yuurei suggested.

Aiko shuddered. "JUMP! Into there? It's so dirty! I didn't even bring a bathing suit, either!"

Yuurei rolled his eyes. "You don't need a BATHING SUIT if you're a STUFFED ANIMAL!"

"Fine!"

The two jumped into the stream and were carried by the current until they saw a box that must have carried some kind of food in it before.

"There! Let's get in that box! We'll be dry there!" Yuurei yelled as the two jumped into the box and used a stick as an oar.

"WAI! I get to go on an adventure with Yuu-chan!" Aiko squeed. "Wait…! Isn't that a tunnel!"

"SHIT!" Yuurei screamed as they were suddenly in darkness.

"WAAH! YUU-CHAN! IT'S SO DARK!"

"HEY! LET GO OF ME!"

"NO! IF I DO, I'LL DIE!"

Yuurei sweat dropped. "As IF we could die!"

"LOOKIE, YUU-CHAN! It's a light at the end of the tunnel! We ARE going to die!"

Yuurei's eyes widened. "Wait…that's…that's…" He couldn't finish as the two went flying off of a drop where the water dumped into a lake.

The two sat in a puddle full of trash for a few minutes when Aiko said, "It smells so baaaaaaad!"

"Yeah." Yuurei responded rather incoherently. He then spotted a ladder that lead up to a street. "AH! We have to get back to Capsule Corp. before Goten goes in!"

"EEP! You're right!" The two climbed up the ladder, but had to freeze as soon as a girl walked by.

The girl picked them up and inspected them. "Poor stuffed animals! You're all dirty! I'll have to wash you!"

The next thing Yuurei and Aiko knew, they were inside of a washing machine, spinning round and round and round and round and round and round. Then the machine suddenly filled with water, before spinning them around again.

"YUU-CHAN! WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" Aiko whined.

More time passed. Aiko and Yuurei were now suddenly on a clothes line, drying.

"Hey, Yuu-chan?"

"Yeah."

"Am I clean and pretty now?"

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"Really."

Aiko closed her eyes. "You know, I'm kind of embarrassed. Being all alone with you out here…"

The instant Aiko opened her eyes, she screamed. A crow swooped down and picked Yuurei up.

"HEY! YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM! HE'S MINE! MINE, I SAY!" Aiko screamed as a crow came and grabbed her as well.

"Hey! Let us go!" Yuurei yelled.

Aiko clenched a paw. "YEAH! If you don't, I'll beat you up!"

Yuurei sweat dropped before he looked down and saw something. "Hey, there's the kid!"

"How are we going to get down?"

Yuurei thought for a second before doing what Aiko did earlier with the dog. He began to make bird sounds in hope that the bird would let him down. As if on cue, the bird suddenly swooped down near where Goten was.

"What did you do, Yuurei?" Aiko asked.

"I just made bird sounds! I did it with feeling!"

Aiko then began to flap her arms and made bird sounds, sure that she'd be able to convince the bird to let her down. Instead, the bird looked at her and seemed to glare. The bird sped up and circled the bird with Yuurei.

Yuurei and Aiko both screamed as the birds collided with each other, sending the two of them soaring towards the ground, where they fell right in front of Goten.

"Eh?" Goten bent down and picked them up. "Aiko? Yuurei? What are you doing here?"

"Goten, you can't go to Capsule Corp. today! If you do, you'll die sooner!" Aiko explained.

Goten cocked his head. "Why not?"

Yuurei looked up at Goten. "We don't know. All we know is that the shinigami handbook said you'd die sooner if you went to Capsule Corp. today."

"Aw! Trunks and I were gonna play though!"

Aiko glared. "Don't go, Goten-chan!"

Goten bowed his head in defeat. "Fine." He then looked at Yuurei and Aiko. "So…I saw you were in a lot of trouble with those birds. Why didn't you just transform into your shinigami forms? You could have gotten down much faster."

Yuurei and Aiko's eyes widened. Why didn't they think of that before?

Aiko sighed. "This has been way too long of a day, and it's just getting started!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** I hope that chapter wasn't too bad. More action will come in a few chapters. I promise!

Also, I'm fairly sure I won't update this story tomorrow. I've been pampering this one too much. Dangerous Thoughts is due for an update, you know. ;;

V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** I said I wouldn't update SOS today, now didn't I? XD Well, I obviously went against that. I DID update Dangerous Thoughts, but, since I still have enough creative juice in me, I might as well update this story, too. I'm going to try to take the fic slow, even though I'm anxious to get to the more dramatic and adventurous part of the fic. cough

Thanks so much for reviewing chapter three, **DBZ Chick1**, **n1c0le**, **Shadow of dusk**, **DBZAngelX** (who just had her sixteenth birthday hugs Angel-chan), and **The Almighty Rule of Dragons**. You guys are sosososososososososooooooo awesome! Love ya!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragonball Z. If I did, Gohan would have commit suicide and became a shinigami…! (:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goten fell onto the ground from exhaustion. "Wow, I'm so tired." The child had been transformed into his sixteen year old form.

Yuurei, who had turned back into his shinigami form along with Aiko, looked down at him. "You have been training almost all day, you know."

"I know!" Goten smiled. "I'm so happy! I've never been able to do this much before! Thanks again, Yuurei-oniichan!"

Aiko glared. "Don't' _I_ get any recognition?"

"You didn't do anything, Aiko." Yuurei rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I did!" She twirled around. "I blessed him with being able to see my absolutely beautiful face!"

Yuurei and Goten just sweat dropped. "Sure, Aiko."

She smiled. "You know, names really do define a person! My name means "little love" or "beloved." It fits me, doesn't it?"

"Okay." Yuurei said.

"Yuurei means "ghost."" She sighed. "That sucks as a name to have."

"HEY!"

"Goten means palace. Maybe that means you're going to be rich someday, Goten-chan!" She laughed. (A/N: I've checked the meaning of "gotten" in several Japanese dictionaries. They all say it means "palace.")

She smiled. "Reizo, my old partner, his name means "cool." She snorted. "He's anything BUT cool!"

"Agreed." Yuurei said.

Goten smiled as the two shinigami gossiped about some other shinigami. He hadn't known them that long, but he already knew that he'd be crushed if they left him. They were great friends.

Yuurei and Aiko suddenly stopped talking and looked up in the sky. There, flying above them…was a green man. He was wearing a dark purple gi, a white turban and a white cape with large shoulder pads.

"Who…is…that…?" Aiko asked in fear.

Yuurei just stared. That green man…looked so familiar. He KNEW he'd seen him somewhere. He just didn't know _where_.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here in the middle of no where?" The green man yelled down to Goten.

Goten realized that he was still in his older form, so he'd have to make an excuse. Not many humans came out in this area after all. He knew his ki was different when he was like this, but Piccolo probably felt that he had a ki that was too strong to be human.

"My name is…Maro! I just flew out here in my plane to see the lake!" He pointed at the large lake near him.

"Maro?" Yuurei asked. "You named yourself, "myself." You've got to be kidding!"

"I couldn't think of anything else!" He told Yuurei.

Piccolo raised an eyebrow…or…the skin where he should have an eyebrow (Piccolo doesn't have eyebrows, but that's besides the point). Who was that guy talking to? There was no one there.

"Who are you talking to?" Piccolo asked.

"I was talking to-"

"GOTEN! You're the only person who can see us, remember! To that green guy, you're yelling at air!" Yuurei yelled as Aiko finally broke out of her stupor from seeing a green man.

"I was talking to myself." Goten, or "Maro," said.

Piccolo flew down to the ground next to the guy. This "Maro" was suspicious.

"So you came here to look at the lake, huh?" Piccolo asked.

"Yeah! That's right, Piccolo-san!" Maro said.

Piccolo glared at him. "How do you know my name?"

"I….I…"

"Why do you have such a high ki?" Piccolo yelled.

"I…"

"You're awfully suspicious!" Piccolo grabbed the teenager by his collar.

"HEY! Let him go!" Piccolo turned around and immediately let go of the boy from shock. Standing there, was a boy who looked to be no more than sixteen. He had spiky black hair that went in all directions and coal black eyes. It looked exactly like…

"Gohan."

Piccolo slowly walked towards the shinigami and brought his hand up to the boy's face, only to have it slapped away.

"I don't know anyone with that name. Sorry."

Piccolo sadly looked down.

"Of course. Gohan's been dead for years."

Yuurei walked over to Goten and grabbed him.

"Let's go back to your home, kid." He said. Aiko followed behind them, eyes wide from the feat that Yuurei had just pulled.

Goten looked at Yuurei with wide eyes. The shinigami looked…human. The dog ears and tail were gone, as well as the wings. He just looked like any normal sixteen year old guy.

"Yuurei…how…?"

Yuurei smirked. "I'll tell you later."

"WAIT!" Piccolo yelled. "Who are you two?"

Yuurei was about to respond that it was none of his business, but Goten interrupted.

"Yuurei-oniisan…I want to tell Piccolo-san. We can trust him. I promise!"

Yuurei looked down at Goten. With that look Goten was giving him, he couldn't possibly resist.

"Fine."

Goten walked up to Piccolo and waved.

"Hi, Piccolo-san! It's me! Goten!"

Piccolo's eyes went wide. "Goten?" He just stared. "Goten's only seven years old."

Goten nodded. "That's where Yuurei-oniisan comes in!" Goten looked over at Aiko, who cleared her throat. "Oh! And Aiko-san!"

"…How…?"

"It's simple, green man. Aiko and I are shinigami. I'm just using my powers to make Goten older. I can transform him back, if you want proof."

"SHINIGAMI?" Piccolo yelled. "Shinigami are spirits that take the dead to the afterlife! Why are YOU here!"

"Piccolo-san…" Goten started. "I'm going to die in a year."

Piccolo's eyes widened and he took a step back. This was impossible. He had already lost Gohan. He didn't want to lose Goten, too. He knew that if Gohan was here, he would fight off this shinigami and go against fate.

"I don't' believe that. Even if it IS true, I'm not going to let you die, Goten." Piccolo glared. "IF you're really who you say you are, that is."

"Yuurei, let's show Piccolo-san." He smiled.

"Okay." Yuurei turned back into his shinigami form.

"Where'd that guy go?" Piccolo asked.

Goten smiled. "He's right here!" He put his hand on Yuurei's shoulder. "He says that you just can't see him 'cause living people aren't supposed to see shinigami. Anyway, transform me, Yuurei-oniisan!"

Yuurei snapped his fingers, and instantly, Goten was covered in light. As soon as the light faded, Goten was back to being seven years old.

Goten's smile widened. "It's it so cool, Piccolo-san?"

Piccolo slowly nodded. This was one of the odder things he'd seen in his life.

"Anything's possible, I guess." Piccolo said. "You shouldn't be training, Goten! With health like yours, it's bad for you!"

"When I'm in my older form, my tumor isn't there! Yuurei-san made it disappear when I'm like that!"

Piccolo just stared. "O…kay. I'd better get you back home, Goten. The harpy will send out a search party if you're not home soon."

Goten nodded. "You're right." He turned to Yuurei and Aiko. "Let's go!"

Yuurei turned into his plushie form and walked up to Piccolo. "You wouldn't mind carrying me, would you? I just want to explain a few things to you. I know you're probably worried about Goten. I could see you're a bit skeptical about this."

"Whatever." Piccolo grabbed the plushie and flew into the sky with Goten and Aiko (who was still in her shinigami form) following.

"We shinigami don't set fate, Piccolo." Yuurei started. "Our master, Death, does that. We simply have to carry out his will."

"I understand that. Can't you change fate so Goten won't die though?"

Yuurei looked at the ground that rapidly passed below them. "That…I don't know."

"I don't want you taking his life."

"I don't want to." Yuurei looked up at Piccolo. "I promise to protect him as long as I can."

"YUUREI!" Aiko yelled.

"It's our duty to protect him until his time, Aiko. We can't let him die sooner than he's supposed to."

Aiko sighed. "I guess that's true."

"Promises are easily broken, Yuurei." Piccolo looked down. "I broke a promise a few years ago, and I regret it more than anything."

"What promise did you break?"

"I promised a friend, Goten's older brother, that I'd always protect him. I couldn't protect him. He killed himself."

Yuurei looked at Piccolo. "That isn't your fault, Piccolo."

"I know. I'm just guilty for breaking that promise."

"Looks like we're home!" Goten yelled as he, Piccolo, and Aiko all descended.

"GOTEN-CHAN!" Chichi yelled as she ran out of the house. "You came home later than you said you would! No dinner tonight!"

"Okaaaaaasan!"

"NO! You have to learn your lesson!" She then looked at Piccolo. Yuurei had already jumped out of his hands and turned into his shinigami form.

"YOU! Why didn't you bring him back sooner!"

Piccolo glared. "I wasn't with him the whole time! I was the one who told him to come back!"

Chichi just glared. "Leave my baby alone!" She then slammed the door.

Yuurei looked annoyed. "I wonder if she's always like that."

"I sure hope not."

"She's still mad at me for not protecting Gohan." Piccolo said to himself. He couldn't see or hear Yuurei or Aiko when they were shinigami, after all. Piccolo sighed and flew off.

"I can't help but feel a bit sorry for the guy. He looked so sad."

"Yeah." Yuurei responded. For some reason, it hurt him to see the man so sad. He wasn't sure why.

_Don't be sad for me, Piccolo-san._

Yuurei shook his head, ignoring the strange voice that filled his head. He was too tired. He was obviously hearing things.

"I'm going to watch the sunset. You can go inside, if you want."

"Okay." Yuurei flew into Goten's bedroom, and sat on the floor. Goten was currently in another room watching cartoons with his father, so he was all alone.

"Gohan. That name seems so familiar to me." Yuurei sighed. "That green guy, Piccolo, did, too."

He slammed his fists onto the ground. "Who are they? Why can't I remember!"

Suddenly, he heard voices and saw flashes of images.

_Otousan…I'm coming. I'll see you again soon._

_Are you okay, kid? You look pale._

_I'm going back the the house now. Sayonara!_

_What did you do to yourself? Why? Why did you do this?_

_Lemme die!_

He fell onto the ground and clutched his head in pain. What was he hearing and seeing? He was so confused!

_I ran away. I don't want to run away again. I WON'T run away again!_ A child with spiky black hair yelled.

Yuurei withered on the floor. Was that child him when he was alive? Were those part of his memories?

The memories suddenly stopped coming, and Yuurei sat up and tried to catch his breath. He didn't want to remember anymore.

"Yuurei-oniisan?" Goten came in to the room. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Nothing's wrong."

"Stop lying to me."

"What?"

Goten glared. "I know you're lying to me, Oniisan."

"It's okay, Goten." Yuurei smiled. "I just remembered something from when I was alive. It hurts us shinigami to remember our lives. If we remember everything, we become ghosts."

Goten looked scared. "You mean…you're going to become a ghost?"

"No, no! Of course not! It's normal for us to have small flashbacks of our memories."

Goten hugged him. "Good. I don't wanna lose you, 'niisan."

Yuurei ruffled Goten's head. "I know, kid."

Goten smiled. "You weren't scared of Piccolo-san today! Most people are!"

"Should I be scared? He looked like a big teddy bear to me." Yuurei joked.

"He IS!" Goten joked. "He tries to act like he doesn't like people showing him attention, but it's just an act."

"So, Goten….what do you want to do?"

Goten smiled. "Lets play with my action figures!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aiko sat on top of an abandoned barn on the countryside. It had been a while since she'd seen a sunset on Earth. She missed coming here.

"I see you still like sunsets, huh, Ai-chan." A voice called from behind her. Aiko turned around to be faced with a blond haired shinigami, who was wearing a white shirt, a leather jacket and leather pants. He had his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't have an animal mascot because he wasn't assigned to the pediatric division. The pediatric division shinigami had to have animal mascots in order to appeal to children.

"Reizo."

"I've missed you, Ai-chan." He pulled her in for a hug, but she quickly pushed him away.

"What are you doing here, Reizo!"

Reizo smiled. "I came here to save you from that low-life shinigami, Yuurei. I'm sure you miss being with such an amazing shinigami such as myself."

She growled. "In your dreams, Reizo! Yuurei's millions of times better than you are!"

"Aw. I thought you were in love with me."

She pushed him even farther away. "I may have been in love with you back then, but I'm sure not in love with you anymore. You're such an idiot. You get rid of me as a partner, then come back begging for me to be your "girl" again."

Reizo smiled. "I'm asking you to be my partner again."

"Give it up. I like being with Yuurei."

"You said that about me before, too." He pulled himself closer.

Aiko yet again, pushed him away. "Get away from me, Reizo."

"Reizo-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!" A pitiful voice droned. Both Aiko and Reizo looked up to see a ghost-looking shinigami named Mijime.

"Go away, Mijime." Reizo ordered.

Aiko sweat dropped. "Who's HE?"

"My new partner."

Aiko just stared at Mijime. "I can understand now why you want me back, but I still refuse."

"Aiko-chaaaan, you're being stupid for refusing…!" Mijime went up to her and circled around her head.

"Go away, Mijime!" Aiko yelled.

"Neveeeeeeeer!"

Reizo glared. "Stop picking on Ai-chan, Mijime." He took out a needle and pocked Mijime. Mijime deflated like a balloon and began to fly all over the place.

"You're so mean, Reizo-saaaan!"

"Shut up."

"Reizo-saaaaaaan!"

As the pair argued, Aiko quickly made a run for it. She flew to the Son house and found Goten and Yuurei playing with Goten's action figures.

"Yuurei-chan, you'd make such a good older brother."

Yuurei looked up at her. "Really?"

Just as she was about to respond, Reizo and Mijime came through the roof. Maybe she didn't ditch them well enough.

"YUU-KUN! GET AWAY FROM MY GIRL!"

"I don't want _your_ girl!"

Reizo smirked. "If Aiko doesn't come with me, I'll tell the master about how you're helping out a human boy." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** Not much of a good ending to the chapter, but oh well. I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading!

V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Thanks so much for the awesome reviews, guys! **The General of Darkness**, **Shadow of dusk**, **rocky**, **DBZAngelX**, **sarah**, and **DBZ Chick1** are each super great for reviewing chapter four! Extra thanks to **DBZAngelX**, who's reviewed every chapter so far!

Two more reviews until 20! I'm looking forward to it!

**Disclaimer:** Dragonball Z is copyrighted to Toriyama Akira and Toei Animation. I don't own anything that has to do with DBZ. Aiko, Reizo, and any other original characters that appear are owned by mwah! (:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"If Aiko doesn't come with me, I'll tell the master about how you're helping out a human boy." Reizo smirked. His plan was flawless.

"I _don't_ want to come with you, Reizo!" Aiko yelled. "I like Yuu-chan, not you!"

Yuurei blushed a bit at her comment. He felt bad for not returning her feelings. He loved her, but only as a friend.

"Reizo!" Reizo slowly turned and looked at the younger shinigami. "You think that being a tattle-tail is bad, huh? You think it'll scare me, huh? If _you_ so _dare_ as to take Aiko OR tell the master about this, _I'll_ tell every other shinigami about how you can't even speak in your plushie form! Or should I tell them about how you have extreme trouble transforming back into your regular form? Maybe I'll tell them both! Then YOU'LL be the laughing stock!"

Reizo growled. "I'M your elder! You should RESPECT me! At least I'm not in such a low-life ward as pediatrics!"

"LOW LIFE!" Yuurei yelled. "We have a harder job than you do!"

"You've never been cut out to be a shinigami, Yuurei." Reizo glared. "Give me Ai-chan!"

"Take her, but if you do, just know that all of your deepest, darkest secrets will be revealed!"

"REIZO, FOR THE FIFTY MILLIONTH TIME, I DON'T WANT TO GO WITH YOU!" Aiko screamed. Goten sweat dropped. "Mister, if Aiko doesn't want to go, why are you forcing her?"

"Stay out of this, human!" Reizo yelled.

Goten glared, trying to look scary, but only succeeded in making himself look more cute.

"She's MY oneechan!"

Aiko and Yuurei just face faulted. Since Yuurei was the "oniichan," calling Aiko "oneechan," seemed some what awkward…or at least to Yuurei it did.

Hearts shined in Aiko's eyes. "See, Yuu-chan! Goten knows we're perfect together!"

Reizo growled and Yuurei looked annoyed.

"REIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZO-KUUUUUN!" Yuurei, Aiko, Reizo, and Goten all turned to see Mijime.

"REIIIZO-KUUUUN! I want to watch my soap operas!" Mijime whined.

Reizo took out a needle and poked Mijime, making him deflate.

"YOU'RE SO MEEEAN, REIZOOOO-KUUUN!"

"Who the hell is that?" Yuurei asked.

Reizo sweat dropped. "That…is Mijime. My new partner."

"We're the shinigami team, Suihanki!" Mijime yelled. Goten sweat dropped. Did the shinigami's master have a weird sense of humor, or was he just crazy? Two of the shinigami teams were, "Karaage Tamanegi (Fried Onions)," and "Suihanki (Rice Cooker)?" Yuurei's eyes widened. "I understand why you want Aiko back now, but that doesn't mean I'll give her to you. What if I end up with a partner like that?"

"REEEEIZO-KUUUN! MY SOAPS! MY SOAPS!"

"SHUT UP, MIJIMIE!"

"MY SOOOOOOOAAAAAPS!"

Reizo growled. "I'll be back, Ai-chan, Yuu-kun! You'd better be waiting!" Both Reizo and Mijime flew off into the distance. "That was strange." Goten said.

Aiko laughed. "I'm thankful that I got you as a partner, Yuu-chan. I'd die if I got Mijime."

Yuurei slowly nodded. "Me, too."

"Hey…I've been meaning to ask you…" Goten twiddled his thumbs. "How did you become solid before? You looked…alive."

Yuurei sighed. "When I get really…_inspired_…I guess, I can transform into my living form. I can only stay like that for a short time, though. It takes up a lot of power."

Aiko smiled. "I can willingly transform whenever I want! I just don't have a reason to!"

"Whatever, Aiko." Yuurei commented.

"YUU-CHAN!" She growled. "You know I can!"

Goten smiled. "Piccolo-san said that you looked like Gohan."

"So I do. It doesn't matter." Yuurei snorted.

Goten smiled. "I've been wondering…how are you chosen as shinigami?"

Aiko sighed. "I don't know if you are old enough to hear the story, kid."

"Oneechan!"

Yuurei laughed. "She's right, you know! It isn't important, anyway."

Goten sighed. "You're so mean." His stomach suddenly growled. "I'm sooooo hungry!"

"Your mother's not letting you eat, huh? That sucks."

Aiko rolled her eyes. "How would you know. It's not like you experience hunger or remember ever experiencing it."

"True."

"I'm going to go beg mommy for some food." Goten ran downstairs in a rush to get food.

"Heh. We might as well follow him. It's not like we have much other stuff to do." Aiko suggested as she flew through the wall.

Yuurei just stared at Goten's room, and them walked over to a picture he had on his desk of his mother, father, and who he guessed to be Goten's brother. Everyone in the picture looked so familiar, and Yuurei could have sworn he had seen it before. He only wished he knew where.

_I ran away. I don't want to run away again. I WON'T run away again._

Yuurei sighed. There was that voice again. It seemed to haunt him. What did it mean by "run away." He only wished he knew what it meant.

The young shinigami put his hand on his forehead. He wanted to remember his life so badly, yet he didn't want to. He longed to know why he commit suicide, but at the same time, he didn't want to know. He was so confused. He had been able to figure out that that "Piccolo" guy had been involved in his life at some point. He had to wonder if maybe he had been "Gohan."

Part of the reason of why he didn't want to remember was because he knew that if he did remember his life, he'd become a ghost. He hadn't become a full shinigami yet, so there would be no doubt that he'd become a ghost.

Reizo…he didn't know whether Reizo was lucky or cursed. Reizo hadn't forgotten his life when he was taken by Death. Reizo remembered all of his life.

From what Yuurei had heard, Reizo had killed himself when he was only nine years old. He let himself get run over by a train out of depression from his mother abusing him. He wasn't sure if it was the truth though…since so many rumors floated around the shinigami dimension. Of course, if Reizo did die when he was a child, it didn't make any difference on how he appeared now. All shinigami have the physical appearance of a sixteen year old. They received that sixteen year old body when they became shinigami.

Yuurei imagined that the reason Reizo hadn't became a ghost was because he made his first kill so quickly. Yuurei hadn't taken one soul yet. He had been assigned to take the soul of some woman who had been killed by her husband, but her soul escaped him. She said something about _still having obligations on the planet_. What was that supposed to mean?

"Yuu-chan? Are you coming?" Aiko asked as she poked her head through the wall.

Yuurei nodded. "I'm coming."

The pair of shinigami flew down to where the Son family was eating, and Aiko couldn't help but notice how intense Yuurei had looked over the past few days. She knew the anniversary of his death was coming up. All shinigami lost a lot of their powers on the anniversary of their death, and they occasionally remembered bits and pieces of their life. She hoped that he wouldn't remember his life with all her heart. She would die…well…stop existing, if he became a ghost. She needed him with her.

Yuurei and Aiko's eyes widened when they saw how much Goku and Goten were eating. Aiko looked disgusted, while Yuurei felt as though he had seen something like it before. He just couldn't put his finger on when.

"The anniversary is coming up in a few days." Chichi stated coldly.

Goku stopped eating for a moment. "I know."

Goten just stared at his saddened parents. He knew what it was: the anniversary of. Gohan's suicide. His parents always got all sad at this time of the year. Goten was sad to…he was sad because he didn't get to meet his brother, and his parents were so sad. He wished he could cheer them up, but there was nothing he could do. Gohan was gone forever.

_You'll be dead soon, too, Goten._ He told himself. Fear rose in his chest. He didn't want to leave his parents all alone. They had already lost one son. They didn't deserve to lose another.

"Okaasan… Otousan…"

Chichi smiled sadly. "Don't worry, Goten-chan. We'll be fine. We knew that you're upset, too, even though you didn't know him."

"I wish I could have met him."

Goku faintly smiled. "I wish you could have, too. I wish he could have seen you, as well. He'd be really proud of you."

Chichi sighed sadly. She thought about what Gohan might be doing right now had he not have died. He could have gone to school, become a scholar, anything! Every time she saw kids that were the age he should be at the moment, it made her sad. The mothers of those teenagers were so lucky. They still had their babies.

Chichi looked over at Goten lovingly. She loved Goten-chan with al of her heart. He was her baby, too, after all. She just wished that she could have both babies. She worried about Goten so much, too. With his throat cancer, he had to be extremely careful. He was very delicate.

"Can I be excused, okaasan, otousan?" Goten asked.

Goku nodded. "Go on, Goten. I'll see you soon to put you to bed."

"Okay, otousan. Thank you." Goten ran up the stairs to his room and shut the door. Aiko and Yuurei looked down sadly. They knew that Goten didn't want to die, but there was nothing they could do about it. This was their punishment, after all. They had to do things they didn't want to do.

"Aiko…you know, being a shinigami really is a punishment. It serves as so many punishments. I can't even name them all."

Aiko softly laughed. "If only we hadn't killed ourselves."

"Do you ever wonder what made you do it?" Yuurei asked.

"Of course. I wonder why I would give up something as precious as life. All the people from my life probably don't even care or remember me anymore, though. It has been thirty-something years since I died."

Yuurei laughed. "So, if Reizo's our elder, how old is HE?"

"Who knows." Aiko smirked. "He'd probably be a perverted old man by now had he lived."

"We'd better check on the kid." Yuurei said.

Aiko nodded. "Yeah. I hope he's okay."

Aiko and Yuurei flew up to the room to see Goten looking at pictures. There were pictures of him with all of the Z senshi, some of him with his parents, and some of Gohan with their parents. Then there were some of just Gohan, some with Gohan at his age. He liked looking at those. He wondered if Gohan was happy when he was that age, since he obviously wasn't very happy at the end of his life.

"Can you tell us who all those people are, Goten-chan?" Aiko asked in an attempt to cheer the child up.

"Yes." Goten pointed at his mother and father in one picture. "That's my mother and father, as you know."

"They're a cute couple." Aiko said with a smile.

"That's Yamucha-san." Goten pointed at his scarred friend. "He doesn't really talk with us very much anymore. He's a baseball player now. He used to fight."

"Baseball over fighting? How dorky." Yuurei stated.

Goten pointed at Kuririn. "That's Kuririn. He's been my dad's best friend since they were kids." Goten then pointed at Tenshinhan and Chaotsu. "That's Tenshinhan and his friend, Chaotsu. Chaotsu's an emperor and Tenshinhan is his body guard, so they don't visit much."

Goten then pointed at the "jolly-green-giant." "That's Piccolo-san. You've met him."

Goten took out a picture of the Briefs family. "That's Vegeta." He pointed to the spiky haired prince. "He's really mean and arroga-ga-ga-"

"Arrogant?" Yuurei suggested.

"Yeah!" Then Goten pointed to Trunks. "That's his son, Trunks. I play with him a lot. He's my best friend." Goten smiled.

"Then that's Bulma-san. She's the current president of Capsule Corp. She was the one who told my dad about the dragonballs."

"Bulma…?" Aiko asked. "Where have I seen her before? I KNOW I've seen her somewhere!"

"Maybe you saw someone who looked like her in the shinigami world." Yuurei suggested.

"No. I know I've heard that name, "Bulma" before."

Goten blinked and pointed at Dr. Briefs and Bunny Briefs. "Those are Bulma-san's parents: Dr. Briefs and Bunny Briefs. Dr. Briefs founded Capsule Corp."

"They both look familiar, too! That name, Bunny, I know I've heard it somewhere before!" Aiko rubbed her head in frustration. "I hate it when you can't think of something so obvious."

Goten smiled. "Maybe you'll remember tomorrow. We're going there for a reunion."

"Right."

"Goten! It's time for bed!" Goku walked in the room and stood next to his son's bed.

"Goodnight, Goten." He gave Goten a kiss on his forehead.

"Night, otousan."

As soon as Goku walked out of the room, Goten and Yuurei were both sound asleep.

Aiko held the picture of the Briefs family close to her face.

"Bulma…why does that name sound so important to me.

_Akiko, you're in love with Hiroshi-san, aren't you?_ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** That chapter was somewhat short, but oh well. I'm too tired to right any more. You'll find out who Akiko is in the next chapter, so look forward to it.

Thanks for reading!

V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Sorry for not updating for the past couple of days. ;; I've been busy…and I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to word this chapter. I've kind of made the story go a bit too fast for my liking, but oh well. No turning back now. There are still lots of chapters left anyway. cracks knuckles

Yuurei's going to remember his life soon, I promise! XD I can't have him NOT remember…! I've been going too long without typing "Gohan this, Gohan that," you know! sweat drops This fanfic has inspired me to make a shrine to the character that I've based Yuurei off of. I've made the layout and everything…but then there's the content. Tis a shrine to Kira Takuto from Full Moon wo Sagashite.

Thanks for reviewing chapter five, **Twixy**, **DBZ Chick1**, **Shadow of dusk**, **The General of Darkness**, **DBZAngelX**, and **Max Dev**! **Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragonball Z. Toriyama Akira-sama does. I DO however own Aiko, Reizo and Mijime. hugs them

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aiko flew through West City as her blond hair brushed against her shoulders from the gentle gusts of wind. She was trying to find out where she had known this Bulma.

The female shinigami stared up into the night sky, noticing the moon, as if hoping it would give her answers. The moon was a substantial part of a shinigami's transportation between the mortal world and the shinigami world. During a new moon, a shinigami couldn't travel between the two worlds. As long as there was even a sliver of the moon shining on a particular night, a shinigami could safely cross between the two worlds.

_I rely on the shinigami handbook for all of my questions, but I don't think it can answer this one._

She glanced at Goten's page of the handbook, noticing that there weren't any sorts of threats to his life. As much as she didn't want him in danger, having NO threats made her existence rather boring. Of course, that was part of the punishment.

"Punishment. How is it punishment if we don't even remember what we're being punished for?" She sighed. "Is there much of a point to our existence? Sure, we end the living's lives, but what else is our purpose? It's like we're the antagonists…taking away someone who means so much to other people."

Reizo once told her that being happy as a shinigami was impossible. There wasn't anything good that came from being a shinigami. All they did was bring pain upon themselves and others.

_Reizo…_

Aiko sighed. She remembered when she worked with Reizo. They were one of the best teams in shinigami history. Back then, Aiko really thought that she loved Reizo. She constantly confessed her love to him, but he always brushed it off, believing that it was a sin for shinigami to love.

"He kissed me that day. I thought he truthfully love me."

Yes, Reizo did kiss her one day. He even made her a beautiful pink dress that matched her pink hair band, to show how much he adored her. She thought he loved her, but it turned out that even after that, he was still so confused about his feelings for her.

Reizo split their team. She was so hurt then. She was angry that she had then been paired up with the new shinigami, Yuurei. She vowed she'd never fall in love again.

_But I did fall in love again…_

Aiko smiled. Yuurei was so charming. There was absolutely no way that any girl could resist the guy. He was handsome, and had just as beautiful of a personality to go along with it. He could cheer anyone up when they were sad. She wondered what had made such a care-free guy commit suicide.

"Why did _I_ commit suicide? Why would I give up something as wonderful as life? What could have been so depressing." Aiko looked down and noticed that she suddenly was at Capsule Corp. With only a little bit of thought, she descended into the building. The girl walked around the large complex, wondering if she'd see this "Bulma" lady. Of course, it was midnight. She probably hadn't stayed up.

The cat-eared shinigami jumped as she heard something crash from another room. She walked in to see a blue haired woman.

"That must be that "Bulma" woman." She squinted her eyes. "If only I could remember where I've seen her before."

Bulma bent over and picked up the picture that had fell as a result of her bumping into the table. She sighed as she looked at the picture. It was a picture of her when she was a teenager with her best friend at that time, Asu Akiko.

The shinigami with the name of Sakku Aiko flew over to see what Bulma was looking at and gasped. The girl in the picture looked nearly identical to her. "Akiko… Why did you have to do it?" Bulma sighed. "It was all a big misunderstanding. Hiroshi-san was trying to take advantage of me. I knew you loved him, Akiko. I never wanted to hurt you, Akiko."

_YOU'VE BEEN DOUBLE CROSSING ME THIS WHOLE TIME!_

_How could you, Bulma-chan?_

…_I thought you were my best friend…!_

_Bulma-chan…say something. Tell me not to do it. Come here and comfort me like you always have. No…she won't come. I can't see anything anyhow. It's raining too hard._

Aiko silently cried. She remembered where she'd seen Bulma before.

"Bulma-chan…you betrayed me. Why are you mourning over someone you hate?"

"My name isn't Asa Akiko anymore! It's Sakku Aiko!" Aiko glared. "How dare YOU betray me, Bulma! You BETRAYED ME! You went with Hiroshi-san even though you knew I loved him! I put all of that trust in you…!" Aiko continued to cry. "Then you left Hiroshi and went with that husband of yours!"

Aiko attempted to slap Bulma, but her hand just went through Bulma, without Bulma feeling anything but maybe a cool feeling on her cheek.

"I….I CAN'T STAND BEING AROUND YOU!"

Aiko flew out of Capsule Corp. She flew and flew until she couldn't fly anymore. She landed upon a mountain and took in several deep breaths.

"I was called Akiko. Asa Akiko. I was eighteen…and was in love with a man named Hiroshi. My best friend, Bulma, took him from me. I killed myself from the despair of losing both my best friend and the one I loved."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Flashback_

"AKIKO-CHAN!" A fourteen year old Bulma yelled as she ran up to her older friend and hugged her. "I've missed you for the past couple of days!"

Akiko laughed. "Sorry! I had so much homework to do that I basically had to lock myself in my room!"

"I know!" Bulma pouted. "With finals coming up and all, you'd think they'd go easy on the homework so we can study more!"

"So…what's Hiroshi-san been up to lately?" Akiko asked.

Bulma laughed. "You're definitely in love with Hiroshi-san, aren't you, Akiko-chan?"

Akiko blushed. "Yeah. I don't stand a chance though. You're so lucky. All the boys want you."

"Puh-lease! They're all such dorks! Why would I want to date someone like them! They're such dorks!" Bulma smiled. "Hiroshi-san's all yours. I promise."

"Thanks, Bulma-chan." Akiko dreamily sighed as Hiroshi walked up to him, his brown hair shining in the light, and how his eyes were at an angle where it looked like they were sapphires.

"Hello, Hiroshi-san." Akiko smiled. "How are you today?"

"Find, thanks? What are you guys up to?" Hiroshi asked.

"Studying for finals. It's such a pain!" Bulma whined.

Hiroshi smiled. "I'll help you two, if you want. Would you like to go to the library to study?"

"YES!" Akiko said, a little to enthusiastically.

_I thought that the three of us could remain friends forever, with me in the middle. I loved Bulma-chan and Hiroshi-san so much. I though nothing could go wrong._

Akiko walked down the hall sadly. Lately Bulma and Hiroshi had been really busy, so they hadn't hung out as much. Akiko wasn't one of the more popular kids at school, so it wasn't like she really had anyone to talk to. She had originally become friends with Bulma because her mother had selfishly suggested that she suck up to the richest kid in the school. Akiko did follow her mother's orders, but she learned that she would like Bulma even if she wasn't rich. Bulma and she soon became best friends.

Akiko walked into her math classroom, sure that she would be the first one in, since it was thirty minutes before school started. As soon as Akiko saw the scene that was playing out on one of the desks, she dropped her backpack in shock.

There before Akiko was Hiroshi and Bulma…lip locked. Hiroshi had pushed Bulma down onto the desk and was fiddling with the top buttons of her blouse.

"This can't be." Akiko took a step back in despair. "THIS CAN'T BE!"

Bulma struggled against Hiroshi and looked at Akiko.

"Akiko-chan…"

"YOU'VE BEEN DOUBLE CROSSING ME THIS WHOLE TIME!"

"Akiko-chan! It isn't…" Bulma began to plead.

"How could you, Bulma-san? I trusted you!" Akiko screamed.

"AKIKO…!"

Akiko let the tears run down her face.

"…I thought you were my best friend, Bulma-chan…" Akiko sneered. "I guess I was wrong."

"AKIKO! This is a big misunderstanding!" Bulma yelled as Akiko ran out the door, ran through the halls, and out of the school.

Akiko ran through West City until she saw a somewhat tall building. She quickly ran into the building and got on the elevator, telling it to go to the top floor. She was alone in the elevator. It was ironic. That's how her life was. She was always alone. She thought that Bulma and Hiroshi would be the people who would save her from that loneliness, but it looked like she was wrong.

As soon as Akiko reached the top floor, she slowly ascended up the stairs to the roof. The stairs to what she thought would be heaven.

Akiko stood on top of the building and looked down. She was high up. There'd be no way that she'd survive the fall. Akiko sighed and thought over her life. She wanted to end it.

Rain suddenly began to poor down on West City, and most people tried to get to a dry place, cursing the weather forecasters for messing up the forecast again. Sunny all day. _Sure_. "Bulma-chan…say something. Tell me not to do it. Come here and comfort me like you always have. No…she won't come. I can't see anything anyhow. It's raining too hard."

Akiko let her braided pigtails down and looked up into the sky.

"I'll be there soon. I'll be away from this hell."

Akiko took a step foreword and fell from the building. A few tears fell from her eyes as she looked at the rapidly approaching ground.

"Bulma-chan…"

Asa Akiko felt a sharp pain, and that was the last she knew.

_End Flashback_

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aiko cried. She was such a failure. She wouldn't fail this time. She couldn't fail. She'd do what she was assigned to do. This was, after all, her punishment for killing herself.

Aiko flew to the Son house and made a whip appear.

"I'm sorry, Goten-chan, but this is the end of the line for you. I must complete my mission."

She brought the whip back, ready to strike Goten, but immediately a figure moved in the aw.

"Yuurei…!"

Yuurei glared as a few droplets of blood fell from his cheek.

"What are you doing, Aiko! We said we'd wait until his time is officially up!"

Goten woke up and noticed the whip in Aiko's hands.

"Oneechan, what's that whip for?" He innocently asked. Aiko smiled. "This…This is the whip that I use to take souls with."

Goten's eyes widened. "It's…what…?"

"It's time to die, Goten!" She through the whip towards him again, but Yuurei quickly slapped it away.

Yuurei walked up to Aiko and slapped her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Aiko, what's your PROBLEM?"

Aiko slowly brought her hand up to her check that was slowly turning red. A tear escaped one of her eyes.

"You don't want me either, do you, Yuurei-kun?" Aiko drew back. "Find, I'll leave you."

Aiko flew away from the Son house as Yuurei screamed for her to tell him what was wrong. She landed in a clearing next to a lake.

"No one wants me." Aiko wiped her tears away. "I wish I could turn into a ghost, but since I'm a full shinigami, I'm going to have to go on being a shinigami with my memory forever."

"No one wants you, huh?"

Aiko turned around to see Reizo walking up behind her.

"I love you, Ai-chan." He hugged her. "I want you to be with me, Ai-chan!" "Reizo…"

Reizo glared. "Don't you EVER say you're not wanted, Ai-chan!"

"But…"

"If it's too painful to be on this planet, then I'll take you back to the shinigami world with me! I'll force you even! I know this is hurting you, Ai-chan!"

Aiko fell into his embrace. She let the tears pour from her eyes.

"It hurts, Reizo."

Reizo hugged her tighter. "I know it does, Ai-chan. I've lived with my memory the whole time I've been a shinigami."

"Take me with you, Reizo." Aiko said.

"If that's what you want, Ai-chan."

With that said, the two shinigami vanished to the shinigami world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N: Poor Yuurei-chan! He barely appeared this chapter! Anyone notice the relationship between the names, "Asu Akiko" and "Sakku Aiko?"**

**Thanks for reading!**

**V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Please review! **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Bleh. I'll be completely honest when I say that I completely forgot that I had this story to work on these last…err…two weeks. I've been too addicted to Catster and Dogster. XD Woops!

ding ding DBZAngelX wins the prize! Yes, Asu Akiko is Sakku Aiko mixed up! nod nod On top of that, Aiko and Akiko are two of my favorite Japanese names. Hehe…

sweat drops If I ever leave the fic alone for two weeks like that again, please bang me upside the head…or PM me. Knowing how it goes, I'm probably just being forgetful, as usual. It's one of my charming traits.

Many thanks to my _six_ awesome reviewers, **Merklin** (your review gave me the warm and fuzzies! XD), **DBZAngelX**, **Shadow of dusk**, **lpgohanfanatic** (formally DBZChick 1), **SuperSanne**, and **Gohan'sUltimatepower**. Love you guys lots!

**Disclaimer:** Dragonball Z is owned by Toriyama Akira and Toei Animation. Yuurei's name, Aiko/Akiko, Reizo, and Mijime are my own characters. Don't steal them!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"AIKO-ONEESAN!"

"AIKO! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Goten whipped up some of his tears. He and Yuurei had been searching for Aiko all morning, but had come up with nothing. The last they had seen the girl, she had been holding a whip, ready to kill him. Goten didn't care that she tried to kill him. He knew that Aiko must have been provoked by something for her to come after him like that…well, he did know she and Yuurei had to take his life eventually, but she _had_ tried to do it prematurely.

Yuurei sighed. "Goten, I don't think she's in this area. Maybe she went to the city? I know she said she wanted to look around Satan City…I think she was still interested in West City, too. I would say that we should split up to cover more ground, but with the way she was acting, I don't want you going anywhere without me."

"Yuurei-oniisan…why would Aiko-oneesan attack me like that?" Goten asked.

A shinigami's JOB was to do stuff like that, that's why. She had no right to try to complete the mission early though.

"You realize that the two of us will have to take your life, right, Goten?" Yuurei said grimly.

"I know. It's your job. I can't get in the way of fate." The child said sadly.

Yuurei looked up in the sky to see a certain Namekujin descending to the ground.

"Look's like Piccolo's here." Yuurei commented.

Goten smiled a bit. "Piccolo-san! What are you doing here?"

"I _live_ out here, kid. What are YOU doing out here so early in the morning?" Piccolo asked, obviously not seeing Yuurei.

Goten sniffed. "Yuurei-oniisan and I are looking for Aiko-oneesan. She stormed off last night."

Piccolo raised an eyebrow…err…the skin where he would have an eyebrow, anyway.

"What?"

Yuurei turned into his plushie form within a puff of smoke.

"Goten, you're terrible at explaining things, so let me take care of this." Yuurei rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, Oniisan!"

Yuurei smiled a bit before his face fell into a serious expression again. They needed to find out what Aiko was up to. There was no time to waste.

"Aiko tried to take Goten's life last night. Our job as shinigami is to take the soul from our target and deliver it to Emna…when their time is up, and only when their time is up. She was attempting to take his soul too early. His time isn't up yet. After her failed attempt at getting his soul, she flew away so fast that I couldn't catch up with her. There are only two places I think she could be: West City or Satan City." Yuurei explained.

"So what are you waiting for! Go find her!" Piccolo yelled.

Yuurei winced. "You see…that's the problem. We need to find her _quickly_. I need to be by Goten's side at all times to make sure Aiko doesn't try to take his soul again. Unless we could split up, we only have luck to depend on when it comes to finding her today."

Piccolo scowled. He didn't want this _woman_ killing Goten. He didn't want to lose another person who was close to him. If he could only see these 'shinigami.' If he could see shinigami, he could look for Aiko in one city while Yuurei and Goten went to the other.

"_I can allow you to see shinigami, Piccolo. I'm connected to Emna."_

Piccolo growled lightly. "_Kami. Don't you know when to leave me alone? When we fused, the deal was that you'd remain quiet."_

"_All I'm offering is help."_

"_Why would you want to help your evil half?"_

Kami chuckled. "_You're not evil anymore, Piccolo. You were purified fourteen years ago."_

Piccolo saddened as he thought of his late friend.

"_Will you accept my proposal or not, Piccolo? You want to protect Goten, don't you? For him at least."_

"_Fine."_ Piccolo gruffly responded.

The mental image of Kami grinned. "_I thought you would. Tell G-"_ Kami paused. He couldn't let Piccolo know who Yuurei really was. If he did, it would make Piccolo try to fight the fate that had befouled Gohan, which could lead to even more chaos. "_Tell Yuurei to transform back into his shinigami form. You should be able to see him."_

Piccolo looked at Yuurei. "Transform back into your shinigami form."

Yuurei blinked. "Why?"

"Kami, my other 'half,' claims that he's allowed me to see you shinigami. If it's true, you can go search Satan City for Aiko with Goten, and I'll search for her in West City."

Yuurei nodded and grinned as he transformed back into his shinigami form.

Piccolo's eyes widened when he saw Yuurei. It was the same reaction he had when he saw Yuurei in his 'living' form. Despite the dog ears, dog tail, and wings, he still looked _so much_ like Gohan.

"Judging by the look on your face, I'd say you can see me." Yuurei said.

Piccolo nodded. "I can see you. What's this Aiko look like? I at least need a description so I can locate her."

"She's wearing a knee length, sleeveless, red dress, has a red hair band in her hair, is wearing boots, has long, blonde hair, blue eyes, cat ear, cat tail, wings... She's neither tall nor short. She's pretty much in-between. I think that's about it." Yuurei explained while rubbing his chin.

"I'll go look for her." Piccolo glared at Yuurei a bit, and was somewhat shocked when Yuurei didn't flinch or show any sign of fear like most people, even Goku, did.

"You swear to protect Goten, right?" Piccolo asked.

"Of course!" Yuurei grinned as he and Goten lifted off the ground to fly to Satan City.

Piccolo also lifted off the ground and just stared at the pair for a second before shooting off towards West City.

Yuurei laughed a bit. "Ja, Piccolo-san!" The shinigami felt like those words had rolled off of his tongue many times before. There was so much about Piccolo that seemed somewhat familiar to Yuurei.

"Are you ready to go, Yuurei-oniisan?" Goten asked.

Yuurei smiled as he ruffled Goten's hair a bit. "Yeah. Let's go."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm such an idiot, Reizo-kun." Aiko sighed as Reizo stroked her hair.

Reizo grimaced. He hated it when Aiko got all pessimistic. Aiko was the kind of person that was just meant to always be optimistic.

"You're not an idiot, Ai-chan. Everyone makes mistakes. Every shinigami was once alive, and every shinigami's life ended in the same way: suicide. I know how you feel! I've had to live with my memories the whole time I've been a shinigami!"

Aiko sighed. "I wish I could go back to being so blissfully ignorant. Not remembering my life as Akiko…"

"I wish I didn't have to remember my life either, Aiko."

Aiko glared. "I wish I would become a ghost. It would end my pain."

"It's because of the fact that you want to become a ghost that you won't become a ghost. Not only that, but you're a full shinigami. It would be tough for you to become a ghost." Reizo tilted her head up so she would look at him. "I don't want you to become a ghost, Aiko. I don't think Yuu-kun wants you to become one either."

"I have to go back there."

"No you don't. If you don't want to go back there," Reizo paused, "I'll do your job and take that kid's life."

Aiko's eyes widened. "Reizo…!"

"Sssh!" Reizo brought his fingers up to her mouth. "We won't tell Master. Do you not want to go back to Earth?"

"No…I don't want to go back." Aiko responded honestly.

Reizo smiled sadly. "I'll be back, Ai-chan. I'm going to end your suffering by taking the load or your current target off your shoulders."

Aiko nodded as Reizo disappeared.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Where _is_ she?" Yuurei growled.

Goten continued looking around the city. "Be patient, Oniisan! We'll find her eventually!"

Yuurei sighed. Why did Aiko have to go and be such a pain? What had provoked her to attack Goten, anyway? It was uncalled for!

"This city's really big, isn't it, Yuurei-oniisan?" A few people stared at Goten like he had grown two heads. After all, they couldn't see Yuurei, and to them, it looked like Goten was talking to thin air.

"Aw! How cute! He must have an imaginary friend!" One woman commented to her companion, who rolled his eyes. Goten sweat dropped. "Why are people so weird, Yuurei-oniichan?"

"They can't see me, Goten." Yuurei laughed. "Don't tell me you forgot already!"

Goten blushed. "Oh yeah… Sorry, forgetfulness is in my jeans…though I'm not wearing any jeans! I'm so confused…"

"It's GENES, Goten. G-E-N-E-S. Genes. Not _jeans_"

Goten just blushed even more as he and Yuurei walked through the city.

"I miss Aiko-oneechan."

Yuurei sighed. "I miss her, too. I never would have thought I'd say that, either."

At that moment, Yuurei's eyes widened as he saw a blur of what looked like Aiko rush into the alley behind him. Forgetting about Goten momentarily, Yuurei ran into the alley after her.

"AIKO!" Yuurei looked around in the dark alley to see no one. Only a few mice eating some food that someone had left.

"Damn it! Where'd she go!"

Goten tried to find Yuurei. He had lost the shinigami in the crowd of people, and since Yuurei didn't have a ki, he couldn't try to search him out that way.

"Yuurei-oniichan!" Goten saw a person who looked like Yuurei, on the sidewalk across from him, and without even looking, crossed the street.

The next few moments went in slow motion for Goten. The truck's horn boomed through the air, as Goten fell into a coughing fit from his cancer. The child weakly looked up to see that the truck wasn't stopping. At that moment, Goten thought that his life was gone for sure.

It was at that moment that he felt himself be picked up into someone's arms, as the person jumped to the sidewalk, scrapping his or her back on the cement.

"Ow!" A female voice said. "Are you okay, kid?"

Goten looked up to see his savior. The girl had long black hair that was tied in two pig-tails and sapphire eyes. She didn't appear to be too tall. She was wearing an overlarge white t-shirt along with biker shorts and green fighting boots.

"I'm okay. Thanks for saving me, lady!"

The girl smiled. She may have been a grouch to most people, but she loved children.

"It's no problem. That's my job!" She proudly stated. "My name's Videl, by the way."

"GOTEN!"

Both Videl and Goten looked up to see Yuurei flying towards them. Videl gaped. How in the world was that guy flying?

Yuurei grabbed Goten and pulled him in for a hug. "I'm so sorry, Goten! I shouldn't have left you like that!"

"It's okay, Oniichan. I know you were worried about Aiko-oneechan." Goten pulled away from the embrace and looked at Yuurei. "Did you find her?"

"No. I could have sworn I saw her!"

"Ahem!" Yuurei and Goten both looked up to see Videl glaring down at them. "What exactly is going on here?" She put her arms on her hips and walked up to Yuurei. "How can YOU fly? What's with the ears, tail and wings, anyway?"

Videl rubbed Yuurei's cat ears. The shinigami blushed. What was she doing? How could she see him, anyway?

"What's this universe coming to?" Yuurei held his head in his hands. "Another person can see shinigami now."

Videl's eyebrow twitched. "Shi..ni…gami? A GOD OF DEATH?"

"Calm down! You look like a real idiot right now, you know!" Yuurei yelled. "To everyone here, you're yelling at thin air!"

Videl glanced at a few people around her to see them looking at her like she was insane.

"It looks like Mr. Satan's girl has finally lost it!"

"I don't care if she's crazy, she's still hot and I'll make her my girlfriend!"

"Who's Videl-san talking to, Momma?"

Videl glared. "SHUT UP!"

Everyone immediately did just that, but continued staring at Videl.

"STOP STARING!"

"Right, Videl-san!" They all said at the same time, as they went back to their business.

Videl sighed. "I must be going crazy. Seeing ghosts? Sheesh!"

"Stupid, I'm not a ghost. I'm a shinigami. Ghosts are pitiful souls that just wander the universe pointlessly.. I have a purpose!"

Videl just continued glaring at the shinigami before she lightly snorted.

"What's your purpose? Killing people? That's what books on mythology describe shinigami as doing."

Yuurei glared. "I'm keeping the universe in balance by doing that!"

"Videl-oneechan! Yuurei-oniichan!" Goten cried. "Stop arguing! I'm hungry!"

Videl sighed. "Listen, kid, I may have saved you, but I've got a life, too, you know."

Goten began to lightly cry. Soon, it changed from light sniffles to an all out bawl.

"WAAAAH! ONEECHAN'S SO MEAN!"

Videl gulped. "Okay, okay! I'll get you ice cream! Is that good enough?"

Goten happily nodded, happy that his "make-people-pity-me" attack had worked.

As Videl and Goten walked off to get ice cream, Yuurei looked up to see Reizo sitting on top of a building.

"_You._" Yuurei sneered. "You have Aiko, don't you?"

Reizo smiled. "So what, Yuu-kun? She came with me willingly."

Yuurei just growled.

"Not only that, but she asked me to exterminate that child in her place." Reizo smirked.

Yuurei clenched his fists in anger. "You tried to kill Goten today, didn't you?"

"Maybe so. The pleasures of illusions. I appeared as Aiko to throw you off, then I went over to Goten and appeared as you, so he'd cross the street right when that truck was coming. If only that girl hadn't have gotten in the way. I may have to kill her if she interferes next time."

"Reizo…" Yuurei clenched his fists even harder. "REIZO!"

Yuurei sped towards the shinigami, but hit some kind of barrier.

"Uh uh! No hurting a fellow shinigami, Yuurei! Just left me have Ai-chan, and I'll leave you alone."

"Never!" Yuurei yelled, as he tried to get through the barrier.

"Shinigami-san?" Videl called, as she held her cone of ice cream, as well as Yuurei's.

"Ja, Yuu-kun. I'll see you next time!" Reizo said as he disappeared.

"He got away…" Yuurei sighed.

Videl looked up at the shinigami, noting how sad he looked.

"What happened between you and that guy? Who's this 'Ai-chan?'" Videl asked as she handed him his ice cream.

Yuurei contemplated over whether he should tell the girl the whole story or not, but somehow he felt like he could trust her. It wasn't like she could do anything to harm him or Goten, anyway.

"Let's sit down. I'll explain then. It's a rather long story." The shinigami blushed lightly as he held out his free hand to her. "Oh yeah. My name's Yuurei."

Videl shook his hand. "I'm Videl. Nice to meet you."

Yuurei smiled. "Let's go talk."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** I had absolutely no creativity while writing this, so I hope it's bearable. Yes, Videl will play a role in the fic. Don't like it? Don't read it. Sorry if there are a few errors. I didn't have time to thoroughly proof read the chapter, since I need to be at school in a few minutes. Eh he...

V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Click "Review" please!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** XD Celebration time! I finally remembered to bring the binder that had this chapter written in it home (I wrote this chapter in my math class... Heh…)! I'm sosososososo sorry for the delay on getting this chapter out. It's been hanging over my head too long!

I've started _another_ fanfic, Cursed. -kills off muses- Can't you come to me AFTER I've finished at least ONE fanfic! Sheesh! Anyway, read Cursed…or else I'll sick Mijime on you!

-random fact- Sorry if there's any typos in this chapter. I am going to check over it, obviously, but I had this blood test done earlier, and my whole left arm now is sore as heck. It makes it hard to type.

-sigh- I've decided I'm going to make a pronunciation chart. Why? Just 'cause. XD

Yuurei - YOO-RAY  
Aiko - EYE-KOH  
Reizo - RAY-ZOH  
Mijime - MEE-JEE-MEH  
Hiroshi - HEE-ROH-SHEE  
Shinigami - SHEE-NEE-GAH-MEE

Many thanks to my six reviewers, **lpgohanfanatic**, **Twixy**, **DBZAngelX**, **Shadow of dusk**, **December Jewel**, and **Sweeteen19**! I love you guys!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragonball Z. Toriyama Akira and Toei Animation do. I do however own Yuurei's name, as well as Aiko, Reizo, and Mijime. -hugs the shinigami- Oh yeah…then there's Hiroshi. -coughs-

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Aiko was your partner?" Videl asked.

Yuurei nodded. "Ever since I became a shinigami. Reizo has feelings for Aiko, so he made her come with him."

"Is Reizo…evil?"

"No. He's just selfish." Yuurei explained. "Back when he and Aiko were partners, she gave him everything. She showed her love to him time and time again. He rejected her every time."

Videl sighed. This was all so complicated.

"Reizo seems to have seen his love…or lust for her, after she became my partner. He's tried to get her back ever since."

"Why do you think she went with him?" The blue eyed girl questioned.

Yuurei placed his head on his hands. "I don't know. I'm worried about her. What's Reizo doing to her? What made her so upset?"

Videl watched Yuurei as he tried to cover up his emotional roller coaster. She hadn't known him for that long, but she did want to help him.

Yuurei gasped as Videl hugged him and put her head on his shoulder.

"If you're sad, cry. If you're happy, smile. If you're angry, yell." Videl said. "I know you're sad, Yuurei-kun. Please…please don't hold it inside yourself."

Yuurei laid his head on her head and cried.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Maybe I shouldn't have left." Aiko cried. "I shouldn't have asked you to kill Goten, Reizo-kun. His time isn't up yet."

"Ai-chan!" Reizo yelled. "Don't tell me you want to go back!"

Aiko looked down at the lake below her. "I can avoid Bulma-chan. I want to go back, Reizo-kun."

Reizo growled. "Even when Yuu-kun's with that girl!"

"Girl?" Aiko asked.

Reizo through some liquid into the lake. "Watch!"

The image in the lake showed Videl handing Yuurei an ice cream cone, then Videl leaning onto Yuurei, and Yuurei putting his head on her head. Then, from Reizo's control of the images, he showed Yuurei kissing Videl."

Aiko's eyes widened. "No…NO! Yuurei-chan wouldn't do that to me…!"

"You said that about Bulma, too, Ai-chan."

Aiko shook her head. "No! I have to listen to what he has to say! Back then…I should have listened to Bulma! I won't make the same mistake again!"

Aiko through something into the lake and flew into the lake, immediately being transported to Earth. The girl looked around, discovering that she was in Satan City.

'Perfect!' She thought.

The shinigami flew until she reached the park. She saw Goten playing on a swing, and Yuurei with Videl sitting on a bench.

Yuurei looked up to see her. "A…Aiko! Aiko, is it really you!"

"What are you doing, Yuurei?" She asked coldly.

Yuurei cocked his head at her coldness. "What's wrong, Aiko?"

"IDIOT! The girl! Are you cheating on me!"

Yuurei and Videl both blushed furiously as they moved away from each other.

Videl looked up at Yuurei and thought, 'She's his girlfriend?'

"Aiko! She's not my girlfriend! Do you seriously think I'd just pick some girl up after a _day_! Since when were you my girlfriend anyway!"

Aiko glared. "Yuurei-kun, for the ninety-eighth time, I love you!"

"You said that about Reizo at one time, too!"

'And….Hiroshi-san…' She thought.

"It's…ironic, Yuurei-kun. When I ended my life, I told myself there was no way I'd ever become friends or fall in love with someone. The instant I was reborn as a shinigami, I forgot everything…including that promise to myself. I repeated that mistake. I guess every shinigami finds a different way to take the punishment, huh?"

"Aiko…did you remember…?" Yuurei gasped. "Aiko! You could become a ghost!"

"I won't become a ghost. I've been a shinigami long enough that Death wouldn't get rid of me. I have enough power to protect myself, anyway. It's young shinigami like you that have to worry about things like that. Young shinigami who haven't taken a life yet."

Yuurei glared. "Cut it out, Aiko."

"If you had retrieved that soul like you were ordered, you wouldn't have to worry about remembering and becoming a ghost, Yuurei." She reprimanded.

Yuurei just continued to glare. "I'm guessing it was your memory's returning that made you attack Goten and run off with Reizo. Am I correct?"

"Yes." Aiko sighed as she sat down on the bench next to Videl and Yuurei. "I'm…I'm going to break the rules, Yuurei-kun."

"Huh?" The dog shinigami blinked.

"I can't live...um...exist with this regret." She folded her hands on her lap. "I'm going to find Bulma-chan and figure out what happened that day. I'm going to apologize to her."

"Bulma?" Goten asked, returning from the swing he had been playing on. "That's Trunks' mommy!"

"Trunks' father is…Vegeta, right, Goten? I think that's what you told me before." Aiko asked.

Goten nodded. "Yep! Vegeta-san's really mean!"

'Vegeta…not Hiroshi-san. I wonder what happened.' The female shinigami thought.

"You can't seriously be considering communicating with someone you knew when you were alive, are you, Aiko?" Yuurei questioned. "Who knows what the punishment for that is!"

"Who knows what the punishment is for interacting with the child we're supposed to kill, AND allow him to transform into a sixteen year old with our powers!" She yelled.

Yuurei shut his mouth as Aiko flew off to Capsule Corp.

"This is too strange…" Videl said with wide eyes.

Goten smiled. "Oniichan, can we go shopping?"

"Tell you what, Goten, how about you go find Piccolo-san and tell him that we found Aiko. I'm going to hang around with Videl for a while, okay?"

Videl turned around and gasped. Yuurei's wings were gone, as well as his dog ears. He was wearing a white t-shirt that said, 'inu,' on it in red letters, with blue jeans and sneakers.

"I'm just appearing as a human, Videl. That way you don't look like your insane by talking to thin air." He explained.

Videl blushed. "Right. So…what do you want to do?"

He shrugged. "I've never been to Satan City. Could you show me around?"

Videl smiled. "Sure. I actually was on my way to shop for some clothing when I met you and Goten. You wouldn't mind if I went to this one store real quick, would you?"

He gulped. Clothes shopping? That was…boring….and he hated boring things. He was too impatient.

"It's not like I'm going to go to fifty different stores, Yuurei!" Videl stated as soon as she saw the fear written on Yuurei's face. "I know how boring clothes shopping can be. I have this one friend who drags me to every store in the mall. It's…terrible."

"If…If you say so."

The two walked into the nearest mall and Yuurei stopped in his tracks, noticing the food court.

"Food…." He whined.

Videl rolled her eyes. "You don't need food, Yuurei. You're dead."

The shinigami licked his lips. "Food…"

"Yuurei…"

"I…need…food…"

The girl sighed. "I've got an idea. You can eat at the food court while I go finish my shopping. That way we'll both be happy."

Yuurei smiled. "Okay!"

Videl sweat dropped as he ran to the food court, knocking a few people down before she went to do her shopping.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Piccolo-san! We found Aiko!" Goten exclaimed, not noticing where Piccolo was, nor the solemnest of the scene.

"I know." Piccolo responded, still looking down at the thing in front of him.

Goten blinked. "What are you looking at, Piccolo-san?"

"This is your brother's grave, Goten." Piccolo explained. "I come to this grave every now and then to think."

Goten looked at the stone. He had never understood why his brother had killed himself.

"Piccolo-san…why did Gohan-oniisan kill himself?" The child asked.

Piccolo looked away from Goten. "He was sad. I think it was about your father's passing seven years ago. Back then, your father said he'd never come back to life. It might have been that decision that hurt Gohan so much."

Goten blinked. "Why would he kill himself though? Sure, he was sad, but why would he end his life over that?"

"I don't know why people do it, Goten. Gohan probably thought it was the only way to end his own pain."

Goten sighed. The two stood there alone for a moment before Goten said, "I'm going to go back and find Yuurei-oniichan and Videl-oneechan. Bye, Piccolo-san!"

Piccolo grunted to acknowledge that he'd heard him. The Namekujin continued to stare at the grave even after Goten had left.

"Why did you have to do it, Gohan? I…I miss you." Piccolo watched as a few cherry blossoms blew in the wind. "Why didn't you tell me that you were so upset, Gohan? I could have helped you."

"Yuurei looks so much like you…except older, of course. It's amazing." Piccolo sighed. "Sometimes I have to wonder if Yuurei might be a reincarnated version of you."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuurei sighed as he looked around the mall for Videl. She had been gone for a long time, and he had already finished eating. Considering the fact that the anniversary of his death was approaching, meaning his powers were decreasing, he couldn't stay in his human form for much longer.

"Miss, have you seen Videl Satan anywhere around here?" Yuurei asked one woman in a clothing store.

The woman just blinked. "I think I saw her over at that store about fifteen minutes ago." The woman said as she pointed towards a store.

"Thanks, miss!" He responded as he walked towards the store.

"Videl?" He asked when he went in. "You have to be in this store!"

Yuurei tapped another woman on the shoulder. She was wearing a yellow dress and had her hair tied up in a bun. "Miss? Have you seen Videl Satan around here anywhere?"

The woman turned around and immediately dropped her bags. She stood there just staring for a few seconds.

"Miss?" He asked.

"G-G-Gohan-chan." She reached out for him, but he moved away. Suddenly a female voice began to speak in his mind.

"_What's wrong, Gohan-chan? You're worrying me. That's not good for your brother, you know."_

_"Goku-sa died for the planet's sake! You should respect his wishes!"_

_"Goku-sa…can't you see how much this hurts Gohan-chan and me?"_

_"GOHAN-CHAN!"_

Yuurei continued to walk backwards until he hit a wall. "No…no…"

"Gohan-chan…is that you?"

The shinigami screamed as he ran out of the store and transformed back into his shinigami form, flying out of the building through the ceiling. He flew and flew until he reached a beach where he sat down and brought his hands to his head.

"Please…please…make it stop!" He screamed as more images filled his head. He saw a child, who he soon realized was himself, standing in the middle of a field holding a knife. He saw himself bring the knife to his right wrist, where he made a deep cut. The younger (and living) version of himself fell to the ground, blood quickly flowing from his wound.

Yuurei gasped as he saw, of all people, Piccolo come up to the living version of himself. Piccolo cradled the child in his arms, and he heard himself say something that made him shiver.

"_Lemme die…"_

Yuurei screamed as he saw the younger him die in Piccolo's arms. Yuurei's tears soaked into the sand below him.

"I'm…I'm so, so, so sorry, Piccolo-san. I...made you see that." He cried. "I can't continue to remember my life. I…don't want to know what made me commit suicide."

Yuurei stood up and looked over in the direction where he felt Piccolo was. "I don't care if it's breaking rules. I…I understand how Aiko feels now. I have to apologize to Piccolo…for making him witness that."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yuurei! Yuurei!" Videl called. "Where are you, Yuurei-kun!"

"GOHAN-CHAN!" Videl turned to see a woman screaming and struggling with her husband's hold. "I know that was Gohan-chan, Goku-sa! Let me go!"

"Chichi! You must have been seeing things! Gohan _died_ seven years ago, and there's no way he'd be alive again. Not even Shenron can resurrect people who commit suicide." Goku explained, making sure to leave out the part about shinigami.

"I…I know it was him, Goku-sa… It had to have been. He…had the exact same face as my baby…!"

Goku sighed, deciding he might as well hunt out this person to prove Chichi wrong. "What was he wearing?"

"He was wearing a white t-shirt that said, 'inu,' on it, and blue jeans." She explained.

Videl's breath hitched in her throat. That was exactly what Yuurei had been wearing…

"Excuse me, miss…" Videl stood in front of Chichi. "Was this guy tall, had black hair, and black eyes?"

Chichi nodded. "When I called him my son's name, he went pale and ran away. The next thing I knew, there was a puff of smoke and he was gone."

The girl blinked. "I think I know that guy. He doesn't really remember his past…" She gulped. This could uncover Yuurei's past. Was she ready to pry? "Could you tell me about your son, miss?"

Chichi sadly smiled. "My name's Chichi. Since you seem to know who that man who looked exactly like my Gohan-chan is, I guess I'll tell you about him."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Piccolo-san…"

Piccolo looked up to see Yuurei, who had tears in his eyes. "What's wrong, Yuurei?"

Yuurei ran to the Namekujin and hugged him. "I'm so, so, so, so sorry, Piccolo-san!"

"What are you sorry for…?" The green man asked while blinking.

"I remember two things now, Piccolo-san. I remember dieing in your arms…after cutting my own wrists…and…" the shinigami paused, "I remember that my name was Son Gohan. I'm…so sorry, for making you witness my death, Piccolo-san. I don't' know what your relationship to me was, but I still feel so bad about it."

"G-Gohan…" Piccolo stuttered. He looked at the shinigami. He was so much like Gohan…

Suddenly, the shinigami screamed in Piccolo's embrace. He fell to the ground and wrapped his hands around his stomach.

"What's wrong, Yuu…Gohan!" Piccolo asked, shaking the shinigami by his shoulders.

"It…it hurts!" Yuurei, or Gohan, yelled.

Piccolo could only gasp as he saw Gohan's body suddenly become transparent.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**A/N:** --dum dum dum—Yuurei has remembered his past as Son Gohan now! What's going to happen to our shinigami/demi-saiyajin now?

Expect the next chapter to be packed. I'm going to squish Yuurei/Gohan and Aiko…stuff…into one chapter. --sweat drops--

V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
V  
Please review!


End file.
